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And so part of the reason this event is so important is for us to be able to send a message to future generations of teachers, to talented young people all across the country to understand this is a dream job; that this is an area where you will have more influence potentially than any other profession that you go into. This is a profession where you have the potential to make more of a difference than just about anything you can go into. So, over the past 7 years, we have looked at every element of our education system with an eye towards boosting the teaching profession. And thanks to our educators and the opinions you have voiced and the leadership that you have shown, we have come a long way since we came into office. One of the first things we did, in the middle of the worst economic crisis in generations, when States and cities were slashing budgets, was to keep more than 300,000 educators in our kids' classrooms. That was part of the Recovery Act. We have taken the first steps towards making sure every young person in America gets the best start possible. And keep in mind that in 2009, when I started here, only 38 States had their own preschool programs. Today, all but four have. We have expanded Head Start programs for tens of thousands of kids who need it. We made turning around America's low-performing schools a national priority. The year before I took office, a quarter of our high school students did not graduate on time. More than a million did not finish high school at all. We are transforming hundreds of America's lowest performing schools. We are also bringing new technology and digital tools to our classrooms to modernize and personalize learning. Three years ago, less than a third of all school districts could access high-speed Internet, and a lot of low-income communities were left behind. Today, 20 million more students and most of our school districts have fast broadband and wireless in the classroom. 99 percent of our students will have high-speed Internet. We are making remarkable progress towards my pledge to train 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021 thanks to the great work of 100K in 10, which, with new commitments to prepare 70,000 more teachers, I want to just announce today, this is a goal that we are going to achieve on time. We are on our way. And we unleashed a Race to the Top, convincing every State to raise its standards so students are prepared for success in college and for future careers.

monologic

And we listened to parents who wanted subjects like computer science taught in our schools. And we listened to teachers who have shown why cookie-cutter solutions do not always work. We are empowering States and communities to set their own standards for progress with accountability. And because nobody thinks our students need to spend more time filling in bubbles on standardized tests, we are starting to give educators like those behind me the flexibility to spend more time teaching creatively than they are spending teaching to a test. You'd know it better than I do. In too many States, we are underfunding public education. And it is the job of State legislators and of Governors to recognize that the well-being of their State and their communities and their families and their kids requires them to step up. In too many school districts, we still have schools that, despite great efforts by a lot of great teachers, are still not getting our kids prepared the way they need to be prepared. And we have got to be willing to be honest when something is not working and say, all right, let us try something different. But the reason I think-I want to bring this up. This was not in my prepared remarks--but I think it is important. You have got some folks who say resources and money do not make a difference, and the problem is all the teachers' unions. And they want to break up the schools, and they think vouchers are all the answer, or some other approach. And then, on the other side, you have got folks who just know that argument is wrong, but too often it sounds like it is just a defense of the status quo. And the fact of the matter is, is that we do have to do better in too many of our schools. We need more teachers like this in all of you. We do have to have accountability in the classroom. That does not mean forcing you to teach to the test, but we have got to come up with measures that are meaningful so that if somebody does not have the skills that Jahana or these other teachers have, that they can start developing it and we know what to look for. We have got to make sure that we are setting our sights high. And although I am very proud of the work that we have done, I know we are not there yet.

monologic

And we may have replaced No Child Left Behind, which was a relief for a lot of folks, but the absence of something that was not working as well as it should is not the presence of the kind of work that remains to be done. So, in our country, it is a little harder than in some other countries, because we have got diverse populations, and we have got folks coming from different backgrounds and starting off in tougher circumstances. But our Teacher of the Year here stands as proof that you cannot set expectations high enough for our kids. We just have to find it. We have to unleash it. We have to nurture it. We have to support it. We have to love them. And then, we have to tell them precisely because we love you, you are going to work harder--and you are going to do better. And we are going to stay on you. That is what we have to do. And we cannot just leave it to the teachers, because if our notion is we drop off our kids and then the teacher is doing everything, and then our job is done, it is not going to work. So this is why my administration launched Teach To Lead, to give teachers a greater voice in the policies that affect them every day. And I am going to close by just talking about a letter I received at the beginning of this school year from a teacher in Central Virginia named Danny Abell There is a reason why he got a good spot--because he knew I was going to talk about him. So Danny asked his students if any of them wanted to be a teacher when they grew up. And no one raised their hands. And that worried him. So he wrote me to ask what I'd say if one of my daughters told me she wanted to become a teacher. And I mean this-this is the God's honest truth-if Sasha or Malia wanted to be teachers, I will tell them, I could not be prouder of what you have done. And I'd tell them to be the kind of teachers who do not just show her students how to get the correct answer, but how to be curious about the world and how to care for the people around her and how to analyze facts and evidence and how to tell stories, and how to believe in their ability to shape their own destiny.

monologic

Well, I cannot tell you how highly pleased I am to see this turnout at this time of day. You know, I am an early riser myself, but a lot of people are not . I have been up since a quarter to six, looking over this trail that the Union Pacific follows up here, and I have been highly intrigued at what I saw. Coming up that valley, I saw a mare mothering a mule colt. And I saw sheep on one side and a herd of cattle on the other, and I can remember the day when they could not get that close together. You see, my grandfather on one side was strong on cattle and the grandfather on the other side was strong on sheep, and they did not get along very well; but through my mother and father, and diplomacy of the third generation, we see that they can live together very creditably. I also saw this mountain scenery which we do not have in Missouri. We have some hills down in the south part of the State which they call mountains, which is supposed to be the oldest formation in the United States, but when you get down there, there are not any mountains. There are hills up one side and down the other, although the elevation goes up as high as 3,000 feet. I think you are a little higher here than that. I have been looking over a report that the Interior Department has sent to me sent it to the train just as I was about to leave. It is really a sample of the reports that the President is supposed to read and study all the time. You know, I fool them I get up early in the morning and I read them! I think you would be interested in seeing that report. And I have a report like that on the Central Valley of California, on the Colorado River, on the Missouri River, and on the Ohio River, and on all the coast around the United States. And I am supposed to know all about them. Well, I try and get as familiar with them as I possibly can, and I fool them sometimes by being acquainted with things that they think I do not take time to read. This is a map of Idaho and the Snake River Basin, in which it shows the projects that are already in effect and those that ought to be in effect, and those that are partly in effect. Now, from my viewpoint, I have always tried to use as much of the budget as could be distributed for that purpose, for the development of these reclamation and power projects.

monologic

But we have some people in these United States who follow the lead of Daniel Webster who did not think the West was any good, who did not think we should do anything with it. We also have some people in the United States who would like to restore the Insull era, when they put the welfare of the few promoters above the welfare of the people. We are faced with it in this Congress. At the last meeting of this Congress they cut the budget for the development of these reclamation and power projects. They are trying to do the same thing right now, and I hope that we may be able to save some of the funds that are necessary for the developments set out in this Columbia River Basin Report. Had we had some of those projects which have been pending for several years, we might to some extent have alleviated the flood in the Columbia River which caused so much damage. I am going to go out to look that situation over. I have looked over the Missouri River Basin. In fact, I am familiar with it from its source to its mouth. And I am somewhat familiar with this situation. I have been to the Columbia River almost from its mouth to the borderline of British Columbia. I was out here when they were building plants which are dependent on the Grand Coulee Dam and the Bonneville Dam. Had we not had that power source, it would have been almost impossible to win this war. I want to see this development out here and in every other section of the country carried out for the welfare of the people as a whole, and not for a few who want to exploit the people. I am coming out here so you can look at me and hear what I have to say, and then make up your own mind as to whether you believe some of the things that have been said about your President. I have been in politics a long time, and it makes no difference what they say about you, if it is not so. If they can prove it on you, you are in a bad fix indeed. They have never been able to prove it on me.

monologic

I have to bear so much bad news, I must say that is the only time I have ever been introduced as the bearer of good news. We are glad to see all of you here. We are here to announce some new help for California as you work to come out of the consequences of the earthquake. But first I want to talk about the announcement made just this morning at the Pentagon to which the Vice President referred. This morning we announced the latest round of awards in our technology reinvestment project, which helps companies and workers in defense industries to develop technologies to meet our Nation's commercial and military needs. This is the fourth round of TRP awards we have announced since October. So far, $605 million in competitive Federal grants awarded on merit have gone to firms and communities through this innovative program. It is a cornerstone of our reinvestment and conversion initiative, recognizing that those who worked so hard to win the cold war should not be unduly burdened by cutbacks in military expenditures and that all the work they have done, the expertise they have developed, the barriers that they have broken, should be turned to the advantage of America as we move into the 21st century. The TRP is of special interest to the people of California because California has been on the leading edge of military technology. And converting this know-how for dual use and commercial applications will help our country move into the next century as the economic leader of the world, using things that relate from biomedical and environmental technologies to advanced transportation and communications systems, all rooted originally in our investments in national defense. The projects which have been funded are exciting; they are futuristic; they are farsighted; they have potentially enormous beneficial impact to all the American people. I cannot tell you about all of them-we awarded 50 just today-but let me just mention a couple. One involves the Bay Area Rapid Transit System and Hughes Aircraft. Together they will develop an advanced automated train control system that will identify the precise location of every train, even those in tunnels. That will allow trains to operate at closer distances to each other, and that means the existing infrastructure can double its rider capacity. Another project will establish a technology center in Cerritos, California, to transfer leading-edge composites manufacturing technology to 16,000 small defense and commercial firms just in the Los Angeles area.

monologic

The University of California at San Diego will work with Alcoa Electronic Packaging and Hewlett Packard to offer displaced defense engineers a 2-year master's program in world-class manufacturing engineering. This will emphasize foreign language training and include an internship in international manufacturing companies. The aim, of course, is to help these folks build on their old skills with new learning to keep them vital and employed and to keep our country competitive in the global marketplace, to provide economic opportunity and shore up military strength, and to ensure that the people who won the cold war will not be left out in the cold. That is what this TRP, the technology reinvestment project, is all about. I will say that on the last round of grants, I think California won-again, I will say, on a purely competitive basis-almost 40 percent of the total dollars. And when you consider the fact that when we started this, the State of California, with 12 percent of the country's population, had over 21 percent of the Nations's military expenditures and has had almost 40 percent of the base closings, the last two rounds of base closings, and over 40 percent of the last round of base closings, it is heartening that in the race for the technologies of the future and, therefore, the jobs of the future, that the whole conversion effort is obviously beginning to work in the way that it ought to work. Let me now say a few words about our continuing efforts to deal with the consequences of the earthquake. In the 5 weeks since the Northridge earthquake, our administration has worked closely with State and local officials, as all of you know, to try to help families, businesses, and communities. We are working to get the whole region back on its feet again. All of you know what the Vice President has already said, that the FEMA Director, James Lee Witt, Secretary Cisneros, Secretary Pena, Mr. Panetta, and many, many others have worked tirelessly to try to deal with the problems that were generated by the earthquake. Immediately after the earthquake, I extended the period for which Federal Government's paid the entire cost of FEMA disaster assistance and increased from 75 to 90 percent the share paid by the Federal Government for FEMA public assistance programs. Now, today we are announcing some loan guarantees which will help to meet the remaining share owed by the State of California.

monologic

Congress has appropriated new funds for FEMA, for the Small Business Administration, for the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Education, and Veterans Affairs to rebuild these homes and businesses, to house the homeless, to repair the highways and bridges, to restore the damaged schools and other facilities. I do want to say a word of thanks to Secretary Pena for trying to accelerate the construction process. We stood on one of those totally broken sections of highway, and they said it was going to take a year to fix. I know how mad the drivers get at me when we stop traffic at one intersection for 2 minutes here. I multiplied 2 minutes times whatever the number is to get to one year, and it seemed to me that we ought to try to make the contracts go faster. I thank you for that. Recently, your Governor, Speaker Brown, the Senate president pro tem Bill Lockyer, Mayor Riordan, and other officials have asked if there was any way we could lend California the money they believe is needed to pay the State and local share of the FEMA assistance costs. Today I am asking Secretary Cisneros to offer loan guarantees totaling more than $500 million to jurisdictions affected by the earthquake, including the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, and other towns and communities which suffered damages. This loan guarantee authority we are extending to local governments will enable them to obtain loans from private lenders at below-market rates that will take some of the bite out of the cost of recovery. The assistance will be provided under HUD's Community Development Block Grant Section 108 loan guarantee program. I have asked Secretary Cisneros to work with the local governments to work out repayment terms that meet the needs of local communities. The Secretary is also committed to providing technical assistance in preparing the applications and to expedite the review process. This will ensure that the flow of assistance to those in need in southern California will continue without interruption. I have asked the Federal agencies whenever possible to use their discretionary authorities to waive rules and regulations to expedite the delivery of further assistance. This step today builds on these efforts. It reflects a commitment that our administration has made to the people of California, a commitment to do all that we can to help your people work their way out of this disaster, day-in and day-out, until all the work is done.

monologic

In recent years, the citizens of southern California, in particular, have endured multiple disasters, from riots to fires and mudslides and now the earthquake. That is what people around here call a character-building experience. I just want you to know that I am committed to ensuring that our Government continues to meet those obligations that we have to give you the opportunity to make a full comeback in the face of this latest setback. Let me just say one other thing, if I might. Even though this is a time of renewal and reconstruction for the people of Los Angeles and California, it is also a day of sadness for many people in that area and for many of the rest of us who believe in the rule of law and appreciate those who enforce it. Yesterday, as all of you know, a rookie policewoman named Christy Lynne Hamilton was shot and killed in the line of duty less than one week after she became a commissioned police officer. A teenager with a semi-automatic weapon hardly gave her a chance to emerge from her patrol car before she was shot down. She received her diploma, as I said, just 5 days ago. At the academy, she was honored by her classmates as being the most inspirational officer candidate. And now her city has lost a policewoman who could have made a difference to people on her beat. Her force has lost its ninth officer this year. Her children have lost a mother. We have pending before the Congress an opportunity to pass crime legislation that is both tough and smart, that would put another 100,000 police officers on the street, a proposal of real value for the cities of California, and at the same time, ban the kinds of semi-automatic weapons that are used for killing people like Cristy Hamilton and which have no justification for sporting or hunting purposes. I hope that we can make this legislation law and that we can do it soon. Many of you in this room have worked for a long time on these issues. Senator Feinstein, in particular, got the semi-automatic weapons ban into the Senate crime bill, and we all thank you for that. All I can tell you is that we are here primarily to celebrate our coming together to overcome the destructive impacts of an act of God.

monologic

I am thrilled to be back in the great State of Minnesota, with truly some of the most incredible people anywhere on Earth. You know that. And you know, I hate to bring this up--but we came this close to winning the State of Minnesota. And in 2 years, it is going to be really easy, I think. It is been many, many decades since a Republican did that, and I thought I was going to do it. I needed one more visit, one more speech. No, we are very proud of Minnesota. Let me also say congratulations to the Bulldogs on winning the NCAA Championship hockey tournament. And how many are going to the NHL? They are going to do it. So we are honored to be joined tonight by many wonderful Republican leaders, including our incredible House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. He sends a lot of money this way, I want to tell you. I also want to thank and maybe just ask him to come up-we have all night long, right? Do we have time? You know, there-you know, the whole thing going up the trees and down the trees. Tom Emmer, Congressman, loves this State. I also want to thank Lieutenant Governor Michelle Fischbach for being here. It is too much of a deal. Also, a friend of mine and a man who is been incredible and a great supporter, Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka. And finally, the person we are all here to support tonight, somebody who is very special-by the way, loves ice hockey--real ice hockey family. In fact, his brother, you know, the coach of the winning women's team in the Olympics. I will tell you, is this a pretty good sendoff for Pete? He was not supposed to do this, but let us hear him. And as you alluded to, the home of college hockey's National Champions, the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. I am Pete Stauber, and I am running in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District because, like President Trump, I love this country. I love our freedoms. And I love our Constitution. President, before your election, you made a promise to visit Minnesota. And you promised more jobs, fewer regulations, and a better economy for everyone. Now, jobs are up, unemployment numbers are at a historic low, small businesses and manufacturers are surging, and optimism is at an alltime high.

monologic

My blue-collar, commonsense conservative message is resonating throughout the 8th District. President, these people support you. And, Mr. President, these are the same people that are going to send me to Washington so together we can unleash the economic engine in Northern Minnesota. So I did not know he was going to do that, and then he takes out a speech and reads it. He is a great guy, and he loves you, and he loves this country. Remember, I used to say in a little jest, but I really meant it, We are going to win so much. It is what we are doing. President, please, we are winning too much. The people of Minnesota cannot stand winning so much. Please, can we take it easy? So we have created 3.4 million new jobs since election day-3.4. And I have said before, if I would have said that to you during the campaign, those very dishonest people back there, the fake news-- Very dishonest. And we have some people, too, doing that. For instance, I just got back, as you know, from Singapore, where I met Kim Jong Un. And we had a great meeting, great chemistry. They did not want us too. But they-you know, it is like nice to do that. And very interestingly, at first everybody was amazed-amazed that we had the meeting. They could not believe it the first 24 hours. They said, I cannot believe it. You remember that, a while ago? What is the big deal with the meeting? In other words, their bosses said, You cannot say that. So we had a meeting. The President gave away so much. He met with them. What am I supposed to do? Now, sentence one says, a total denuclearization of North Korea. That is what it says. We got back our hostages. And I did not pay $1.8 billion to get back our hostages. We got back our great fallen heroes, the remains. In fact, today already 200 have been sent back. They stopped shooting missiles over Japan. They stopped all nuclear testing. They stopped nuclear research. They stopped everything that you'd want them to stop. And they blew up sites where they test and do the testing. And Kim Jong Un will turn down-and I will tell-he will turn-Chairman Kim will turn that country into a great, successful country.

monologic

A year and a half ago, nobody thought that was possible. In fact, before I was elected, everybody assumed we were going to war. In Seoul, you have 28 million people living 30 miles off the border. They do not even need nuclear weapons for that. They have thousands of cannons aiming right on top of Seoul. You could have lost millions and millions of people. But I got along with Kim Jong Un. And these people-you remember, I said, I cannot believe it- He is given away so much. You know what I gave away? But right now you are so safe, and such a great event took place. And all over Asia, they are celebrating the great achievement that we made because you were the ones that put me here. We made-that we made-all over Asia. Everybody knows what a great achievement this is not only for us, but for North Korea, for South Korea, for Japan, for China, for everybody. And I have to say, you know, you have been reading where I have been putting very large tariffs on China. We hit the $250 billion mark. But I want to say, and we have to do that because it has to be balanced, it has to be fair. China and President Xi has really helped us a lot at the border of North Korea. Really helped us a lot, and he is a friend of mine. He is a friend of mine. So you should be very proud of yourselves for what took place, because that was very close to war for many years. And now we can have something where everybody is going to live in peace for a long period of time. So unemployment numbers are among the best in the history of our country. African American unemployment is at its lowest level in the history of our country. Hispanic American unemployment has reached its lowest level ever recorded-the history of our country. And remember I'd go into big stadiums like this that were packed? And by the way, you are very good at real estate. Did you see the thousands and thousands of people outside? That will never be reported by the fake news. But the thousands of people that could not get in. And it would be great if the cameras could take a shot of the arena. So usually, they do not do it. Although honestly, when you have many thousands of people like we have tonight-you know, I was at an event 3 weeks ago where a person from the New York Times said, There was only a thousand people.

monologic

I did not even have to do it. And they wrote a slight correction. They were off by many thousands of people. It is fake news, I am telling you. But usually, they do not show the arena. They just show my face. So people would say, Did you have many people there? They have only showed your face. And we all have ego, but I do not want to show my face. I want to show the crowds. Unemployment among women has reached the lowest level, as of today, in 65 years. And most importantly of all, America is respected again. We are fighting to protect American iron, aluminum, and steel and to protect our incredible and very brave miners. But I will tell you, to keep this incredible momentum, I think maybe the most successful that the country has ever had. I think we are now at the most successful level that the country has ever seen. And let me just tell you, because I hear a couple of the fakers, the other day, said, Well, I think it is Obama's economy. They want to put on more regulations. They want to take back your tax cuts, which are massive. They want to take them back, and they want to raise the hell out of your taxes. So we need more Republicans. We have got to get out there in the midterm. We have got to get more Republicans. A vote for a Democrat for Congress is really a vote for Nancy Pelosi and her radical agenda. Democrats want to raise your taxes; increase your regulations; shut down American energy; take over American health care, which has been a disaster with Obamacare; and ship away American jobs. And that is what they will do. If anything bad happens to this country, it will be a disaster for all of you. Make America Great Again. And that is exactly what we are doing. And you know what our new phrase is in 2 years. So the Democrats want open borders. Let them come in from the Middle East; let them come in from all over the place. And by the way, today I signed an Executive order. We are going to keep families together, but the border is going to be just as tough as it is been. Democrats do not care about the impact of uncontrolled migration on your communities, your schools, your hospitals, your jobs, or your safety. Democrats put illegal immigrants before they put American citizens. Illegal immigration costs our country hundreds of billions of dollars.

monologic

So imagine if we could spend that money to help bring opportunity to our inner cities and our rural communities and our roads and our highways and our schools. So we have already started the wall. We got $1.6 billion. They want to do anything they can to obstruct and to make sure it does not happen. Oh, we have a single protestor. So we have a single protestor. He is going home to his mom. And tomorrow the fake news will say tomorrow, Massive protests at the Trump rally. So we are going to make it great for Americans. And we are going to take care of people. And we do want people coming across our border, going through our ports of entry, but we want people to come in through merit, not just through luck or happenstance. We want them to come in through merit. And we need people, because we have so many companies now-and you know very well in Minnesota what is happening. They just gave me a runthrough. What is happening in Minnesota is incredible. But we have so many companies moving back into our country. We need people to help, but we want them to come in through the merit system, not a system where we get MS-13 and everybody else that other countries do not want. And the Democrats' open border policies have also allowed MS-13 to break into our country and drugs to pour into our streets. And we are stopping it. We have taken out of our country-and actually-can you believe I have to say this-we have liberated towns. Like it was captured by a foreign country. We have liberated towns out in Long Island. We have taken them out of our country by the thousands. And these countries that send them back, we are putting in legislation-we are not giving them anymore aid. When they send people up. They are sending-you remember those words? They are sending-well, let me tell you, they are sending-and they are not sending their finest. That I can tell you. And what we are doing-what we are doing-we give hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to countries. We have a horrible deal, as an example, with NAFTA and Mexico. They make over a hundred billion dollars on that horrible trade deal where factories were emptied. So many bad things have happened, and we are going to make it a part of NAFTA.

monologic

Because you have to mark up thousands of miles coming through Mexico-you come up thousands of miles coming through Mexico, and we are going to stop it. Because he needs a haircut more than I do. But the media never talks about the American victims of illegal immigration. I know them well. I know so many of them. I campaigned with them. What is happened to their children, what is happened to their husbands, what is happened to their wives. The media does not talk about the American families permanently separated from their loved ones because Democrat policies release violent criminals into our communities. We need safety. We need safety. They do not bring cameras to interview the angel moms whose children were killed by criminal aliens who should have never been here in the first place, not even close. They do not want to talk to the angel moms. But as your President, I will always fight to protect American families. I will always fight for an immigration system that defends our borders and takes care of our sovereignty as a nation. I will never sacrifice the safety and security of the American people. And I will never be silent in the face of vicious smears and attacks and the heroic agents and officers of ICE and the Border Patrol who save millions-just the job they do-save thousands and thousands of lives and are so brave and are so tough. If you want to create a humane, lawful system of immigration, then you need to retire the Democrats and elect Republicans to finally secure our borders. Because we need Democrat votes. We have a majority of one in the Senate. We need Democrat votes in the Senate. We need additional votes in the House. We will have the greatest borders, the greatest walls. We need Republicans to get out and put Republicans in. In case you do not know, in the Senate, we need, unfortunately, 60 votes. We have 51 votes. We need Democrats. They will do anything to obstruct, anything to make it as uncomfortable as possible. We are building it. We are building the wall. Under the previous administration, America's rich, natural resources-of which your State has a lot-were put under lock and key, including thousands of acres in Superior National Forest. Tonight I am proudly announcing that we will soon be taking the first steps to rescind the Federal withdrawal in Superior National Forest and restore mineral exploration for our amazing people and miners and workers and for the people of Minnesota, one of the great natural reserves of the world.

monologic

And we will do it carefully. And maybe, if it does not pass muster, we will not do it all. But it is going to happen, I will tell you. We have already taken it, as you know, a long way down the road. It is going to make it, from an environmental standpoint, better. As a result of our massive tax cuts, millions of Americans are receiving much bigger paychecks. We have eliminated record numbers of job-killing regulations. By the way-so, a few days ago, it was 500 days. In 500 days, we have cut more regulations than any President in the history of our country, whether it is 4 years, 8 years, or in 1 year-in one case, 16 years. We have cut more regulations in 500 days than any President, even our 16-year President. We have opened up energy exploration in ANWR in Alaska. They have been trying to do that from before the days of Ronald Reagan. We repealed the core of Obamacare. The individual mandate where you pay a fortune for the privilege of not paying for insurance for health care. And let me tell you, we just repealed it. And we would have repealed and replaced Obamacare, although we have gone a long way toward doing that anyway-we just had to do it a longer route. Because we had a gentleman, late into the morning hours, go thumbs down. That was not a good thing for our people, for our country, whether you are Democrat or Republican. We have his vote. We have everybody's vote. We were going in for a routine repeal and replace, and he went thumbs down. We are bringing back our jobs from other countries. We are bringing back our companies from other countries. Many, many companies are coming back to our country. And as far as trade is concerned with other countries, we want fair and reciprocal trade. We do not want stupid trade like we had for so long. We have been ripped off by almost every country on Earth, our friends and our enemies. And I hate to say it, our friends do a bigger and better job than the enemies. And even before we finish off with the trade deals-and we will finish off with the trade deals. People do not realize we have the cards. Because we are the piggy bank that everybody was robbing for 30 years. We are like the piggy bank. Let us go get some more. You look at the European Union.

monologic

They put up barriers so that we cannot sell our farm products in. And yet they sell Mercedes and BMW and the cars come in by the millions. And we hardly tax them at all. They do not take our cars. We are going to sell you millions of cars. By the way, you are not going to sell us any. We will not be taken advantage of anymore. We have such potential. We just secured a record $700 billion in funding to rebuild our military, which was in very sad shape. 716 billion. We are ordering new planes. We make the best in the world. We are ordering new ships. We are ordering new military equipment. And we even gave our great warriors a raise. For the veterans, we passed the largest VA reforms in half a century. You could not fire anybody that worked in the VA. They were sadistic in some cases, they were lazy, they were this, they were that. You could never fire anybody, because the accountability, you could forget it. So we passed a bill that they have been trying to pass for almost 40 years. Jim, I am sorry to tell you, you are fired. And even more important-and I did not think I'd be saying this so soon because I would campaign on this-I used to go out during the campaigns-and you know it because I was in Minnesota a lot. But one that is really important to me. And I used to say to myself, I wonder why doctors do not just take care of our great vets. We just passed Veterans Choice legislation. That gives our veterans the care they deserve, the care they earned. Now look, so our veterans were waiting on line for 9 days, for 12 days, for 3 weeks. Someone on line with a minor problem, they ended up having a terminal disease. Now, I said during the campaign, before I knew too much about it, but there is a lot of common sense in life. I say, instead of one of our great veterans waiting for 2, 3, 4, 5 weeks, why do not we let them go see a doctor and pay the bill? And that is what we are doing. And you know, I went to people-I thought about it-I thought, oh, I think I am such a genius. But I went to the vet groups, I went to every- Yes, we have been trying to get that passed, sir, for 30 years. I did not know that.

monologic

But what I did know is, I knew how to get it passed, and we got it passed. And by the way, we passed another one. They travel all over the world if they have the money. If they do not , they do not know what to do. If we have drugs that have not been approved yet, but are showing tremendous promise, it did not matter. You could not get it. And the reason was, they did not want to do anything that is going to hurt you. You are not going to be around for 5 weeks. In 5 weeks-I kept saying, Why cannot we do something? If people had the money, they'd travel to Africa, to Asia, to Europe trying to find the cure. They wanted hope. And they could not get it. And this is also-like Veterans Choice, for many years people have tried pass it. And Kevin was a great help, I have to tell you. Kevin McCarthy, who just left the stage, was a great help. And we got right to try passed. And 4 weeks ago, I signed final legislation, and we are very proud. Between the insurance companies and the health care companies and the pharmaceutical companies, it was incredible. But we did that, and now we are bringing down the prices for prescription drugs, way down. So we have made this incredible progress together with your help, with the help of the millions and millions of people that-well, some polls got it right. But they showed up, and the beginning of that night, people are saying, You know, this could be a big problem for the Democrats. They were not liking what they were seeing. They were seeing too many of those hats. They were seeing too many people with-you know that. That was one of the most incredible evenings. Because that is a movement, the likes of which this country has never seen before. You know, we talk about the forgotten men and women. They pay taxes. They do all of the things. And believe me, our people are the smartest and the hardest working. You ever notice they always call the other side-and they do this on- the elite. I have a much better apartment than they do. the deplorables. You know, I was watching when Crooked Hillary made-and by the way, is it--hey, excuse me. Have you been watching what is been going on with the Inspector General's report?

monologic

I do not think their wife and husband are too happy about that. What do you think? What do you think? No, but have you been seeing this whole scam? Have you been-do you believe what you are seeing? How-no matter what she did, no matter how many crimes she committed, which were numerous, they wanted her to be innocent. And they just wanted to take all of us. They wanted to put us in trouble. And it is not working too well, I will tell you. But you look at the corruption. Did you ever see anything like it? Really, today more things-that is why they are building up immigration so you cannot see what is going on in Congress. They are building up immigration. They do not want to show what is happening in Congress where this whole scam has been revealed. So they want to stay on immigration where Obama had bigger problems than anybody, where Bush had problems, where other Presidents-they want to stay on immigration because they do not want to go into the halls of Congress, which has totally revealed the Russian scam that is going on. I will tell you something, we want to get along with Russia. Between our military, our oil that we are doing. She wanted to have windmills. We want to compete with the oil. All the things we have done, including sanctions. You know, I wish Crooked Hillary won that election. It would have been a lot better for Russia. So what we want to do is we want to elect more Republicans so that we can deliver on all of the things I am talking about. And I will be honest with you, we are going to deliver anyway. We are going to lift millions of Americans from welfare to work, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity. We are going to lift them. You know, one of the greatest things about all the jobs we have created-to me, the greatest-is that people now do not get stuck in one job and they hate it. They do not want to get up in the morning. They have many, many options. It is a beautiful thing taking place. They can get something-I have always said, you know, when I make speeches on how to be successful-I always say, like the first thing, you have got to love it. You have got to love it. You have got to love your job or you are never going to be good.

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These people now that did not have any options-they were hanging on to one job that they hated. They have many, many choices. They get the job they want. And for the first time in 20 years, wages are rising. We are going to build new airports, and we are going to build railways and highways and waterways all across this magnificent land. We have spent, because of horrible decision-making, $7 trillion in the Middle East. And if we want to fix a window, it is , like, a big deal. Remember during the debates, I'd talk about growth. We need growth. Nobody has ever seen growth like we are having right now. President, congratulations on the growth of the United States. And we break every attendance record every single time, just about. We are going to put new steel into the backbone of our country, and we are going to make that steel right here in the United States. We are going to breathe new hope into our communities. We will do it all with American hands and American heart and American pride. And everything we do, we will stand up for our citizens. We will fight for our country. We will stand up for America. And we are going to stand up for the great State of Minnesota. And you are seeing that. Your great State was pioneered by men and women who braved the wilderness and the winters to build a better life for themselves and for their incredible families. They did not have a lot of money; they did not have a lot of luxury. But they had grit, and they had faith, and they had courage, and they had each other. They loved their families, they loved their country, and they loved their God. Together, we are renewing the miracle of the great American Midwest. Do you remember not so long ago, we were producing those cars and we producing all of this stuff? And since then, so many companies went to Mexico and went to other places. We are standing on the shoulders of great American patriots who put down the railroads, built up the highways, and dug out the most amazing Panama Canal, losing thousands of lives in doing it. They crossed the oceans, trekked the deserts, scaled the mountains, created the most incredible republic the world has ever seen. Our beautiful ancestors won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and put a man on the face of the Moon. And I think you saw the other day, we are reopening NASA.

monologic

I am most grateful for the generous remarks that you have expressed in welcoming me and the members of my party to your country. As I stand here I think back 22 years ago when I first visited this country and had the opportunity to know the Italian people. For 2 weeks, at that period, as a new young Congressman, I traveled through this country studying the needs of this nation for the Marshall Plan. I visited Rome, Naples, Milan, Turin, and Trieste. I had the opportunity to see a nation then in deep economic troubles, a nation which many thought would be unable to recover from those troubles and regain its economic and political strength. But when I returned to the United States and, along with my colleagues, reported to the Congress, I was confident of the future of Italy because, first, I had seen a great Italian leader, De Gasperi,1 and I knew that he would provide, with his colleagues, the leadership that this nation needed. I also reported with great confidence because I had seen a remarkable people, a people who, in adversity had very great strength, a people who had contributed so much to our country and who now, in this land, were to contribute so much to its recovery--and the recovery of Italy, economically and politically--so that it now ranks among the first nations of the world, so that it now stands as one of the strong allies of the Western Alliance. That recovery is due both to its leaders and to its peoples and I pay tribute to both as I stand here today. Now we look to the future. We look to the future with the new leaders, the leaders that you will provide in your government and that we will provide in ours. As we look to the future we will look to the new purpose of our alliance and of our association together. As I think of that purpose I think of the words of another American President who visited this nation just 50 years ago. His words were spoken before their time but now their time has come. Our task is to set up a new international psychology, to have a new, real atmosphere where what men once considered theoretical and idealistic turns out to be practical and necessary. President, the contribution that you, personally, and that your people have made to the strength of NATO has helped to turn the ideal of collective security into a practical reality. Now, as we seek a new international atmosphere, the strength of the Western Alliance has never been more necessary. A good ally listens 'to her partners.

monologic

I hope I have Joe Lieberman's remarks on the White House television camera back there somewhere. Thank you so much, Senator Lieberman, for we are about to start our 30th year of acquaintance, Senator Lieberman and I are. When I first met him, I had no gray hair. Now I have more gray hair than he does. I thank Joe Lieberman and Cal Dooley for their leadership of this organization; my friend Simon Rosenberg, who has come a long way since he was in the Clinton-Gore war room in 1992. And he did a great job there. And I, too, want to acknowledge Al From and thank him for the inspiration he is given all of us. I want to thank all the Members of Congress who are here and the candidates here who aspire to be in the House or the Senate. I want to reiterate what Joe Lieberman said, and I did not think I could say this 6 months ago, but we now have, I believe, a reasonable chance to pick up enough seats not only to have a majority in the House, which everybody knows and even our adversaries acknowledge, but even in the Senate, thanks in no small measure to the extraordinary people who are running for the Senate seats on our side. Now, let me say, I suppose I do not have to say much tonight because I will be preaching to the saved. But I think it is worth analyzing where we are and where we are going and why the New Democratic coalition is important and why it is important to us to keep faith with the ideas that got this group started, with the ideals, and to keep always pushing to tomorrow. You know, there are a lot of people who say, Well, this election is going to be about change, even if they think the Clinton-Gore team has done a good job or the Democrats have done a good job. This election is about change. Well, I think it ought to be about change, too. I was educated about this issue very well about 10 years ago. Some of you heard me tell this story before, but it is one of my favorite and most instructive political stories. When I was Governor of my State, every year in October, this month, we'd have a State Fair.

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And I always had Governor's day at the State Fair, and I'd go out there and give an award to the oldest person there and the couple that had been married the longest and the person with the largest number of great-grandchildren. And then I'd go in this big old shed and get me a little booth, and I'd sit there. And in October of not it was '89, and there was a Governor's race the next year, and I had been Governor by then for 10 years. And this old guy in overalls came up to the Governor's booth, and he said, Bill, are you going to run next year again? And I said, I do not know, but if I do, will you vote for me? He said, I always have, and I guess I will keep on doing it. And I said, Well, are not you tired of me after all these years? And I got kind of and I said you know how politicians are, we hate it when somebody says something like that. So I got kind of hurt, and I said, Well, gosh, I mean, do not you think I have done a good job? He said, Oh yeah, you have done a good job, but you got a paycheck every 2 weeks, did not you? He said, That is what we hired you to do. What we have got to figure out is whether you have got anything left to do. No matter how good a job you do, elections are always about tomorrow, and they should be. America has been changing and sort of reinventing itself on the great pillars of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence for over 200 years, and that is why we are still here. And this coalition came into being and the whole sort of New Democrat/ Third Way movement came into being because we thought not that our party should abandon its principles but that we should break out of a shell and adopt policies that would bring us together and move us into the future. I just want to make a few points as we look to that future. First of all, in 1992, when I went out to the people in New Hampshire and all these other States and into the country and asked then-Senator Gore to join me, and we said, Look, we have got this vision of America in the 21st century.

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We want this to be a country where everybody who is responsible enough to work for it has opportunity, where no matter how diverse we get, we are still coming together in one community, where we are still the world's leading force for peace and freedom and prosperity. We want to take this opportunity, responsibility, community agenda and come up with concrete policies and ideas to get the economy moving again, to bring the crime rate down, to bring the welfare rolls down, to empower poor people, to get more young people into college, to raise the standards of our schools and have more choice and competition there. We have got some ideas. And all we were doing is making an argument. And against our argument, what the Republicans said was what they have been saying about Democrats for 30 years, you know, They are too liberal. You cannot trust them with your money. They will raise your taxes. They never met a Government program they did not like. They sleep next to a bureaucratic pile of rules at night. You know, they would not defend the country if their life depended on it. You know, you have heard all that stuff. They had this sort of cardboard cutout image of Democrats that they tried to paste on every candidate's face at election time. And things were sufficiently bad in this country the economy was in terrible shape; the society was divided; the crime rate and the welfare rolls were exploding that people decided to take a chance on the argument. And then we set about trying to turn this country around and made some very tough decisions. And some of our Members paid very dearly for it for the '93 economic plan to turn this country around, for voting for the Brady bill and the crime bill to bring the crime rate down. And about 4 years later, the people decided to give us a they renewed our lease because they could feel things were beginning to change. And then in '98 we had a historic victory in the congressional elections because we had an agenda to keep building on it. We said, Now give us a chance to save Social Security and pass a Patients' Bill of Rights and build and modernize schools. Give us a chance to do some things that will really make a difference here. And now we come up to 2000, and I want to make the following points. Some of them have been made before. You need to memorize this. And the members of the other party unanimously opposed our economic policy; almost all of them are against our crime policy.

monologic

We finally, thank goodness, reached an accord on welfare policy, after two vetoes, and that is good. But still there is this sort of partisan rancor when we have evidence that the direction we have taken is right. The people in this room have been part the Members of Congress in this room have been part of the longest peacetime economic expansion in history, the lowest unemployment rate in 29 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 32 years, the lowest poverty rates in 20 years, the first back-to-back budget surpluses in 42 years, and the lowest crime rates in 26 years. the family and medical leave law, which the previous administration vetoed; doubling the earned-income tax credit; the empowerment zone program, which the Vice President has done so ably; the community financial institutions that are making loans to people that could not get money otherwise; the charter schools we are up to 1,700 from one when I took office; the HOPE scholarships that have opened the doors of college, at least the first 2 years, virtually to every person in this country now; AmeriCorps, which has given over 100,000 young people in its first 5 years a chance to serve their communities, something it took the Peace Corps 20 years to do. So we have been full, all of us, of these ideas, and we have worked along. So when we go into this election cycle, I want you to say, with all respect, you have to make a decision about not whether to change. Since I signed the telecommunications bill, over 300,000 new high-tech jobs have been created. We got this E-rate so we could provide discounts to rural schools and poor schools in the inner cities, so we could hookup all of our classrooms and libraries to the Internet by the year 2000, and it looks like we are going to make it. I was out in California last weekend doing some work for our congressional and Senate candidates in our party, and I was with a lot of people. This great company, eBay you all ever buy anything on eBay on the site? Not working for the company, over 20,000 Americans are now making a living doing business on eBay. They do not work for eBay. They are just doing business on eBay. Over 20,000 people making a living, including a substantial number of former welfare recipients.

monologic

So what we have tried to do is to come with new ideas and policies that will really work, and it is not an argument anymore. So say to people, We are for change. The question is, what kind of change are you for? And the way I look at it, we have spent the last 6 1/2 years trying to turn the country around and get it going in the right direction, and things are going well now. But I would like to suggest that the change we need is to say, Okay, now we are moving in the right direction. Let us reach for the stars. Let us write the future of the 21st century. Let us imagine every challenge and every opportunity we have got out there that is really big and go get it. Let us do not change by taking a U-turn and going back to what got us trouble in the first place. You can trust this coalition of people to deal with the aging of America. We are going to double the number of seniors in 30 years. I hope to still be one of them. The baby boomers will then be with us for at least another 20 years. We may or may not ever get an agreement with the Republicans on Social Security reform, but in good conscience, with this surplus, we must at least take the life of Social Security out beyond the reach of the baby boom generation. We have to do that. If we do not agree on anything else, all it takes to take the life of the Social Security Trust Fund beyond the life of the baby boom generation is to commit to take 5 years of interest savings from saving the Social Security taxes, sometime in the next 15 years, and put them in the Social Security Trust Fund. If we do not do anything else, it'll take us out to 2050, and we ought to do it. We ought to modernize Medicare. We ought to employ the most modern practices that you find in the private sector, and I think we ought to add a prescription drug coverage because if we were creating that program today, we would never create it without drug coverage. And 75 percent of the seniors in this country do not have affordable drug coverage. It will keep a lot of them out of hospitals. It will lengthen and improve the quality of their lives. It is the right and decent thing to do, and we can do it if we are also prepared to have some savings in the traditional program. We ought to take the lead in this. We should do it.

monologic

The second thing we ought to do is to keep working on the schools. We ought to have more charter schools. We ought to have a no social promotion policy. But we ought to give every kid who needs it an after-school program or a summer school program. We ought to modernize these schools, and we ought to hire the 100,000 teachers. You know, if you ever wonder what the difference in the parties is, you ought to look at the debate going on in education now in the House of Representatives. Now, when the electorate was breathing down their throat in 1998 at the end of the congressional session, the Republicans worked with us to make a huge downpayment on 100,000 teachers to lower class size. And we gave the States money for 30,000 of them. And you ought to read the glowing statements made by such Democratic sympathizers as Dick Armey. In 1998, just last year, the chairman of the House Education Committee, lots of others say, This could have been a Republican program. We are helping these teachers. They thought it was a great idea at election time. No electorate breathing down their throat, they have refused to fund the program anymore and taken out the dedicated funding for the teachers that is already there. This is about big ideas. We have got the largest student population, the most diverse student population in history. They need more and better trained teachers. They need higher standards. They need accountability and they need options so that the kids who are not cutting it do not fail, but find a way to succeed. We have the crime rate, the lowest rate in 26 years. Why do not we have a real goal now? Why do not we adopt as a national goal that we are going to be the safest big country in the world? If we have we have got you may think that is crazy, but everybody thought it was crazy when we said we'd balance the budget, too. I could never have been elected President if I said, If you will vote for me, within 6 years I will give you two surpluses in a row. People'd say, He seems like a nice young fella. We'd better send him home and get him a little help. He is out of his mind. If you do not envision this, it will not happen. Why should we say, We have got the lowest crime rate in 26 years.

monologic

But if we are serious about it, we are going to have to do more in prevention. We already have the highest percentage of people behind bars of any country in the world. We are going to have to say there is no rational distinction between a flea market and a gun show and a gun shop. We are going to have to put 50,000 more police out there in the neighborhoods where the crime rate is still too high. We are going to have to do things that help communities that are driving their crime rates down do it everywhere. But I think the Democrats ought to say, We are not satisfied with the lowest crime rate in 26 years. We will never be satisfied until America is the safest big country in the world, and we think we can help to make it that way. Let us talk about the economy. Number one, not everybody is a part of it; and number two, it is changing so fast, if we do not keep working we cannot keep the growth going. So let me just offer you a few ideas that I think are important. These empowerment zones are wonderful, and I want to get more of them. But it is not fair for all the places that are not part of it not to have some help from us to bring enterprise there. If we have learned one thing, we have got the strongest recovery of the last 30 years, also the highest percentage of private sector jobs. We have the smallest Federal Government since President Kennedy was here. But we have not yet figured out how to bring enterprise to every community that has not been part of this recovery. So for those of us who represent and live in the Mississippi Delta or in Appalachia or in represent many of the inner-city areas or a lot of the small towns and rural areas all over this country or the Native American reservations, I have proposed a modest but, I think, important plan. What I want the Congress to do is to pass laws that give us the same incentives to Americans with money to invest in poor areas in America, we give them to invest in poor areas in Central America and the Caribbean and Africa and Asia and throughout the world. The second thing I'd like to say is that I like what we are doing, hooking up all these classrooms to the Internet, and the E-rate allows us to hook them up in rural areas and poor urban areas.

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But if you think about it, I believe we could revolutionize the economy of these left-behind places if access to the Internet were as pervasive as access to telephones. So why do not we adopt that as a goal, study it, figure out how to achieve it, say we will not permit there to be any digital divide. That is the policy we have taken with regard to our schools. That is what the E-rate's all about. But what if their parents all had it, too? What if their parents had access to that? What if we why should we be content with the economy we have? If we do not reach our goal, it will be a lot better than it would otherwise, and we will keep things going. I think we ought to think of that. Let me just mention two other things. First of all, I want to mention something that may be sort of politically impolite, but one issue in which our caucus, in my view, is still divided too often in the wrong way, and that is the issue of trade. Here is what I think. You see it all over the world today. There is a move toward protectionism all over the world today, even in places that are doing well. Because we have not figured out how to put a human face on the global economy. Because we have not figured out how to tell people that, sure, there will be more dynamism in this economy, but here is what we are doing to protect the basic rights of working families. Here is what we are doing to try to protect the basic integrity of the environment. Here is what we are trying to do to make sure everyone can benefit from this. So our party needs to take the lead in pushing for trade, but for doing it in a way that says we are determined to put a human face on the global economy. Because if we do not , it is not just in America; you see this everywhere. I see it in the Europeans. I see it in Asia again. I see it the economy is now the strongest, here, it is been in a long time, and yet, the impetus for continuing to trade is not there. We have got 4 percent of the people and 22 percent of the wealth. So if we want to keep strong and wealthy and growing, we have got to do something with the other 96 percent of the people out there.

monologic

I have got this big trade meeting coming up we all do in Washington State, in Seattle, in December. And I hope we can try to break down some barriers in other countries. But why should people break their barriers down if they think America's trying to have it both ways? So I think we have to go back at this. And lastly and I think maybe the most important thing of all for the next generation I vetoed that tax bill that the Congress passed, the Republicans in Congress passed, because I was convinced that if I signed it we not only could never meet our obligations to our children and to our seniors and to our future in our investments in science and technology, I was convinced we would never finish the work of paying down our debt. Now, we are paying down our debt now. And if we stay on the plane that I asked Congress to adopt in the budget, we will be debt-free in 15 years, for the first time since Andrew Jackson was President in 1835. Now, why should the Democratic Party be for that? In conventional terms, we are the more liberal party. Why should we be for that? Everybody in this room who is 40 years of age or older, who studied economics in college, was told that a Government should always carry some debt. We were all taught that. Because we are living in a global economy. You look at what happens to these countries that try to hide their money; people still get it out. Interest rates are set in a global economy. If we get America out of debt, it means that all the Americans can borrow more cheaply. If the Government is out of debt, it means lower interest rates for businesses in this country, for home loans, for car loans, for college loans. It means more jobs and higher incomes. It means when our friends overseas who are not as fortunate as we are get in trouble the way the Asians did in the last 2 years, they can get out of trouble at lower cost. I believe, if we do this, it would do more than anything else we could do to guarantee a whole generation of prosperity. Whatever happens in the future, we know not every day of every month of every year from now on will be as good as the last 6 1/2 years have been, but whatever happens in the future, it will not be as bad as it would have been if we keep getting this country out of debt. So I hope all of you will support that.

monologic

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I used to think that I was reasonably astute at public affairs, but I do not have any better sense than to get up here and try to speak behind Mayor Powell, Cathy Bessant, and Jesse Jackson. Let me say to all of you, it is wonderful to be here. Madam Mayor, thank you for making us feel so welcome and for your sterling leadership. I am delighted to be here with Jackie, your hero and my friend who is all of our heroes. I am going to go in and shop in a minute-add to the local community. Thank you, Reverend Jackson, for believing that we could keep hope alive in every city and rural area in this country and it could be good business to do so. Joe Stroud of Jovon Broadcasting; my good friend Al From, the Democratic Leadership Council; David Wilhelm, the former Chairman of the Democratic Party from Illinois, who is here with me today. I want to thank Senator Durbin and Congressman Costello, two of the ablest, finest people in the United States Congress. I want to tell you that they are joined here today by other Members of Congress, including Congressman Jim Clyburn, who came all the way from South Carolina; Congressman Paul Kanjorski from the State of Pennsylvania; and Congressman Dale Kildee from Michigan all of whom care about this community and communities like it all across America. I thank them. And I want to thank your neighboring mayor, Clarence Harmon, for coming over from St. Louis, and your former mayor, Gordon Bush, for being here with me. And I want to thank Secretary Cuomo, Secretary Glickman, Secretary Slater, and all the other people from the administration. We have had a great time these last 2 days, going across America. We are going to finish this day, first by shopping at Walgreens, and then we are going to get on an airplane and fly to South Dakota, where we will begin tomorrow at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. So from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to East St. Louis to Pine Ridge, it has been a wonderful trip. But let me ask you something. If you look around this crowd today, I have to make-this is a happy day, a happy day. But I want to say one serious thing off of this subject today, because of a remark that was made earlier by Cathy, that I believe in community development-emphasis, community.

monologic

You have been very good to me, to the First Lady, to Vice President Gore, and Mrs. Gore. You have supported our initiatives and especially the Vice President's leadership of all of our community development. We have people from all kinds of backgrounds, all different colors, all different religions. Everybody-all different ages, working for something good. So this is the first chance, my first stop in Illinois since the tragic string of shootings in Illinois and Indiana these last couple of days, that have come to end with the apparent suicide of the alleged gunman. Now, I do not want to say a lot, but I think it is important to note that while we have to wait for all of the details to come in, the early reports indicated that this shooting spree against Jews, Orthodox Jews, against the young Asian students, taking the life of a former basketball coach at Northwestern, an African-American, all were motivated by some blind racial hatred against anybody who did not happen to be white. Is not it ironic that this occurred during the time we celebrated the birth of our Nation on the Fourth of July? That action was a rebuke to the very ideals that got us started. They are also a stern reminder to us that even as we celebrate this, even as we stand up against racial and ethnic and religious hatred in Kosovo, in Northern Ireland, and the Middle East and Africa, we have still got work to do here at home. We must search the hearts of our citizens and search the strength of our communities, that Congress should pass the hate crimes legislation, but we should rid our hearts of hatred immediately. Now, I want to tell you what got us going on this. In 1992, when I ran for ENTITY, I came to East St. Louis, and I said I wanted to create a country in the 21st century where there was opportunity for every citizen, responsibility from every citizen, and a community of all American citizens. I said that we ought to have a new role for Government, that Government could not solve all the problems, but walking away from them did not work very well, either; and that we had to focus on creating the conditions and giving people the tools to make the most of their own lives and to get together across lines that had divided them for too long.

monologic

Goodness knows, in the inner cities and the rural areas of our country, lines have divided those who worked hard but had no money and those who had plenty of money but did not believe it could be very well spent in the inner city or in rural areas. retail returning, new jobs, new residents, new hope, Walgreens putting up 400 stores across America, many of them in innercity areas. You heard what Cathy said about opportunities. Let me tell you, the economists talk about something in our inner cities called the purchasing power gap. Let me tell you what that means. That means most people in East St. Louis, even though the unemployment rate is higher than the national average, most people get up and go to work every day. And if you take the money that you earn here as against the money you are able to spend here because of the jobs that are here and the stores that are here, in America as a whole, there is 25 percent more money earned than spent in the inner cities. In Los Angeles, it is 35 percent; in East St. Louis, it is 40 percent. So you can handle this Walgreens and a lot more besides, and we want to see them coming here. And we thank Bank of America for the library, and we thank those involved in the hotel, the bank, the homes being built near here. We also want you to know that we want to do our part. Secretary Cuomo's housing and urban development block grants, along with Bank of America and many department stores, are helping Jackie build the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center near here. So this is what Vice President Gore and I have tried to do with our empowerment zones and our community banks and our vigorous enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act. It says you are supposed to loan money everywhere in America. That law has been on the books for 22 years, but over 95 percent of the money loaned under it, billions of dollars, has been loaned since the Clinton-Gore administration has been in office, and I am proud of that. We made East St. Louis an enterprise community in our first round of empowerment zones and enterprise communities way back in 1994, and because you have done so well, East St. Louis is designated as an empowerment zone for our second round, which means more money being spent here by the Government, more tax incentives for the private sector to put businesses here and to hire the people from East St. Louis and give them good jobs.

monologic

Senator Durbin, Congressman Costello, and every Member of the Congress here is committed to creating that second round of empowerment zones and funding them this year. We need help from Republicans and Democrats alike. Now, let me tell you why else we came here today. We want to make two points which all the previous speakers have made. Starting with what the mayor said about location, location, location, accessibility-boy, that was a good rap, was not it? I like that. The first point we want to make is, when the Walgreens' president comes, or when an executive from Bank of America comes, or when Mel Farr comes, and comes to places like this or the Mississippi Delta or Appalachia, the other places we are going, is, hey, there are business opportunities out here. If you have got people who want to go to work and people with money to spend, and they are both in the same place, it is a good place to invest. The second thing we are doing is promoting what you have heard referred to as the new markets initiative. Now, let me just tell you what that is. That is a bill we are going to put before the Congress that says that, if people invest in any high unemployment, high poverty area anywhere in America, inside or outside one of our empowerment communities, they can get a tax credit for the money they put up, and they can go to the bank and borrow money and have it guaranteed, a guaranteed loan by the Federal Government, which will lower the interest rates, which will mean it will be much cheaper for people to invest in communities like East St. Louis than it otherwise would be. Now, the Government is not going to do it, nobody is going to put any money here if they think they are going to lose it. If you put up $100 and you invest it and I give you a 25 percent tax credit, if it is a bad investment, you still lose $75. But it makes it more likely that people will do it. It makes it more likely that they will take a look. It makes it more likely that you will build the kind of relationships which will make people know you and trust you and want to build a common future with you. And that is what we are trying to do. It is not a handout, but it is darn sure a hand up, and you are entitled to it.

monologic

And let me say to all of you, it is something that is good for the rest of America. We have had almost 19 million new jobs; the longest peacetime expansion in history; the lowest African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates ever recorded in this country to date. But the unemployment rates are still higher than they are for the rest of the country. Incomes are rising, but they are still lower than they are for the rest of the country. Look, we are all going to have to work hard at this. Nobody's got all the answers. People make these investments one at a time, just like Mel Farr sells his cars one at a time. You can only build one Walgreens on this spot, and somebody had to come up with the money. Somebody had to make the decision. Somebody's got to hire all the people that work here. Somebody's got to train them. Somebody's got to make all these decisions. But what we can do is to create an environment in which more people will want to hold hands with you and walk into the 21st century, so that nobody is left behind, and we all go forward together. You know, in 1960, Look magazine said East St. Louis was an all-American city. It was because of stockyards and shipping yards. It was because of private enterprise. And I just want to make one last point to everybody else in America who is looking at this. I spent a lot of time as your President, now, trying to figure out, how can I keep this economic good time going? When we started, nobody believed we could have an economic expansion that would go on this long. When we started, no conventional economist believed you could have unemployment rates under 4 1/2 percent nationwide without having inflation and high interest rates which would wreck everything. But, you know, all of these young, technological geniuses are figuring out all this new computer technology, and it is rifling through what we all do, and it is making us more productive. And we are doing a good job. But now I say to myself every day when I get up, now, what can I do to keep this going? The only way to keep it going-more growth with no inflation; more jobs and higher wages without bringing it to a halt-is to have new people working and new people buying, new people producing. Those are the people you move from welfare to work.

monologic

As we celebrate this last New Year of the 20th century, I want to speak to you about the debt we owe to those who make every season a season of peace for America, the men and women of our Armed Forces. Almost 1.4 million Americans are serving our country on active duty today. Nearly a quarter million of them are overseas, doing what needs to be done as no one else can, whether that means thwarting Iraq's ambition to threaten its neighbors or the world with weapons of mass destruction, or standing watch in Korea on the last fortified frontier of the cold war, or safeguarding the peace in Bosnia, or helping our neighbors in Central America or the Caribbean dig out from natural disasters, or simply giving us the confidence that America will be forever strong, safe, and secure. We rely on our Armed Forces because this is still a dangerous world. We are proud of them because they are the best in the world. And we remember today what makes them the best, not just the quality of our weapons but the quality of our people in uniform. We should never ask them to do what they are not equipped to do, and we should always equip them to do what we ask. The more we ask, the greater our responsibility to give our troops the support and training and equipment they need. to give our troops the tools to take on new missions, while maintaining their readiness to defend our country and defeat any adversary; to make sure they can deploy away from home, knowing their families have the quality of life they deserve; and to make certain their service is not only rewarding but well rewarded, from recruitment to retirement. I am confident our military is ready to fulfill this mission today. Our troops continue to execute complex and dangerous missions far from home with flawless precision, as we have just seen in the Persian Gulf. Our challenge is to retain the ability to do this as we carry out our entire defense strategy. For this reason, we asked Congress to add $1.1 billion to this year's budget to keep our readiness razor-sharp and to improve recruitment. I have also worked with our military leaders to ensure their highest readiness priorities are reflected in our budget request for the year 2000. The budget I will submit to Congress for next year will provide an increase of over $12 billion for defense readiness and modernization through a combination of new spending and budgetary savings. This is the start of a 6-year effort that will represent the first long-term sustained increase in defense spending in a decade.

monologic

The members of the Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident have just briefed me on their report. It examines the reasons for the accident. It presents recommendations on what we must do to help prevent such a tragedy from occurring again. And I look forward to reading and reviewing it in thorough detail. And let me give my heartfelt thanks to the members and staff of the Rogers commission. They have performed their task with distinction, and it was an arduous one. To a nation still suffering from the trauma of the loss of the Challenger and her brave crew, it was often a painful duty. Their investigation was thorough and comprehensive and completed within the mandated time. They went in with their eyes wide open and were unflinching in pursuit of the facts. Though saddened and chastened, our nation will be stronger because of their courage and dedication. And as we push forward in our conquest of space and push forward we will our shuttle program will be safer and better prepared for the challenges that lie ahead. I want to thank the Congress for letting the Commission proceed unfettered with its investigation, and also the staff of NASA, the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, and others, whose cooperation made the Commission's report possible. And today we see once again that our true faith as a nation lies in our free and open society. In America we learn from our setbacks as well as our successes. And although the lessons of failure are hard, they are often the most important on the road to progress. We have learned in these past few months that we are frail and fallible, but we have also learned that we have the courage to face our faults and the strength to correct our errors. Because we do not hide our mistakes, we are not condemned to repeat them. Because we are an open society, we have room to grow. We can count on their courage to pull us through the hard places I am speaking now of the American people, because we base our trust on the American people. And that is why we can look to their wisdom, creativity, to show us the way to the future. This has been a difficult passage for America, but we will go on just as the crew of the space shuttle Challenger would have wanted us to. We will use every ounce of American skill, ingenuity, and gumption; and we will work twice as hard and be twice as vigilant.

monologic

When the Committee representing your Federation brought me the invitation to address you this evening, I did not receive them with any very profound enthusiasm. To be confidential for a moment, I may confess that an invitation to make a speech is not the rarest experience that comes into a President's life. But I listened with, I hope, proper politeness, down to the point where your spokesman started explaining that you were to devote an evening to the consideration of a budget. Then I began to take real interest, for the budget idea, I may admit, is a sort of obsession with me. I believe in budgets. I want other people to believe in them. I have had a small one to run my own home; and besides that, I am the head of the organization that makes the greatest of all budgets, that of the United States Government. Do you wonder, then, that at times I dream of balance sheets and sinking funds, and deficits, and tax rates, and all the rest? Yes, I regard a good budget as among the noblest monuments of virtue. It is deserving of all emulation; but there are other topics that afford more obvious inspiration to popular oratory. So when I found that you actually wanted a budget speech, I felt a warming sense of gratitude. Anybody who would deliberately ask for a budget speech ought to be accommodated. I accepted the invitation, and now I want to begin by extending my hearty compliments to my audience. Your practical interest in the budget plan, your adoption of it as the basis of your great charity system, is a fine accomplishment. Wherever the same plan has been adopted, in the financing of benevolences, philanthropies and charities through the Community Chest method, it has been productive of the best results. It has eliminated the waste of indiscriminate charity; but that is not by any means its most commendable accomplishment. Far more useful, I think, is the service it has done in organizing these works of human helpfulness so that we may be sure they will not do more harm than good. Nothing is finer than the open hand and the generous heart that is prompt free and unselfish giving. But modern social science knows, also, that ill directed charity is often directly responsible for encouragement of pauperism and mendicancy.

monologic

The best service we can do for the needy and the unfortunate is to help them in such manner that their self respect, their ability to help themselves, shall not be injured but augmented. But, being down, nobody gets up again without honest effort of his own. The best help that benevolence and philanthropy can give is that which induces everybody to help himself. Your Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies in New York is the central financial agency, I am told, for no less than ninety one various philanthropies, which receive annual support aggregating $7,000,000. Among them are hospitals, orphanages, a great relief society, a loaning organization, a home for Aged and Infirm. The Young Men's Hebrew Association and the Young Women's Hebrew Association do social and educational work of the greatest value. Especial attention is devoted indeed to educational effort for which technical schools are maintained. That is, of course, precisely what we should expect from a great Jewish organization; for the Jews are always among the first to appreciate and to utilize educational opportunities. Into this entire system of communal services, reaching to every possible department of social relations, the Federation brings order and a proper inter relationship. Duplication of services, which always means multiplication of expense and division of results, is avoided. The man or woman who gives through this agency, knows that the most good will be done, at the least expense. All administrative costs of the organization have averaged less than four cents on the dollar. Other Community Chest activities, which in recent years are getting spread all about the country, make like showings of efficiency and economical management. They have been able, just as your Federation has been able, to enlist the best abilities, the most skilled direction, the widest experience, in systematizing operations that ordinarily are haphazard and wasteful. But, with all of my regard for the strictly business aspect of this splendid modern program, I must emphasize once more that to me the greatest good of these communal organizations of benevolence lies in their immeasurably greater capacity for real good. There is an impressive array of testimony that the average dollar of indiscriminate, well meaning, ignorant donation to charity is mostly wasted. You seek no cold and heartless elimination of sentiment from your charitable works. You have, however, sought to substitute sense for sentimentality; and that is altogether to be desired.

monologic

I love you back. Thank you, Secretary Castro, not just for the introduction, but for the great work he is doing on behalf of the American people every single day. I'd like to begin my remarks with a story. I love you too! But look, I have got to tell you this story here. So on an evening about 75 years ago, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, a young man proposed to the woman of his dreams. Any of us who've done that and I have know at that moment he was feeling pretty nervous. And fortunately for him, she said yes. And because apparently he was making the kind of money I was making when I proposed to celebrate, they went to a hot dog stand. But things took a wrong turn. Authorities suddenly pulled up, lined them up, patted them down, demanded to see their IDs, just because they were Mexican American. And when the young man handed over his wallet, the officer pulled the cards out of it and just dropped them on the sidewalk, and then he said, Now you pick them up. I remember getting on my knees and picking them up, that young man said decades later. And we can imagine his fear and his humiliation. What had been a beautiful day had suddenly become an example of occurrences that were happening far too often. And imagine how easy it would have been for him at that moment to turn to despair and to allow the anger and the resentment to feed a cynicism and for him to decide that America could never change. And Ed Roybal never lost faith in himself or in his country. And less than 25 years after he was brought to his knees on the streets of Los Angeles, Ed stood under the Capitol Dome to represent those very same streets in the Congress of the United States of America. He dedicated his life to the idea that America can change, that our Union can become more perfect. And today, his legacy lives on not only in the legislation he passed and the improvements he made in his district, but also in his daughter Lucille, who is here tonight. And he helped start the Congressional Hispanic Caucus because he knew that we are stronger together than we could ever be alone. And that is the same reason I ran for this office 8 years ago, not because I believed in what I could do, but because I believed in what we could do together.

monologic

But thanks to the members of the Hispanic Caucus, thanks to people like Nancy Pelosi who is standing here tonight thanks to the determination and fundamental optimism of the American people, we have made progress. When I took office, the unemployment rate was on its way to 10 percent. The unemployment rate among Latinos hit 13 percent, and we have brought that down to 6.4 percent. When I took office, we were losing about 800,000 jobs a month. Today, our businesses have created jobs for a record 67 months in a row, more than 13 million new jobs overall. When I took office, more than 15 percent of Americans, including nearly one in three Hispanics, lacked health insurance. Today, we have covered another 17 million Americans, including 4 million Latinos, and only 9.2 percent of Americans are uninsured. For the first time on record, more than 90 percent of Americans have health insurance. For the first time ever, insurance companies cannot discriminate against anybody with a preexisting condition. When I took office, we were still too often stuck in a cold war mentality that began before many of us were even born. And today, for the sake of our people, and our entire hemisphere, we have reestablished relations with Cuba, we have turned the page on the failed policies of the past. We have strengthened our relationship with Latin America. We have put forward a plan to invest $1 billion in our shared security and prosperity in Central America. When I took office, hardworking young people Americans in every way but on paper lived in constant fear of deportation. Today, more than 680,000 DREAMers live and study and work freely and openly in the country they have always called home. We have got smarter enforcement priorities, because it makes no sense to focus on separating families when we can be going after felons instead. We are taking new steps to reach out to folks who are eligible to become citizens and attract immigrant entrepreneurs and educate STEM students. We are going to help more husbands and wives of American citizens get their green cards without separating them from their families. And the deferred action policies I announced last year will help millions of mothers and fathers remain in the United States of America with their families, and although it is taking us longer than we hoped, I know we are on the right side of the law, and we are going to keep fighting to prove it. And we have not won every battle. We have still got a lot more work to do.

monologic

But when the cynics told us we could not change our country for the better, they were wrong. The high school dropout rate is near the lowest on record, and Latino students are making some of the fastest gains. More Americans are graduating from college. The deficits are down by two-thirds. The amount of foreign oil we buy is down. Why are some of the folks who are running for my office so down on America? Well, no, I am definitely not doing that. But by most measures, we are better off now than we were 7 years ago. And that we know. Of course, none of it comes up in their debates. I mean, they have invented this new reality where everything was terrific back in 2008 when the unemployment and uninsured rates were rising and DREAMers lived in fear of deportation and we were engaged in two wars and bin Laden was still at large. And then, I came along and messed it all up. repealing Obamacare, gutting Wall Street reform, allowing power plants to pollute the air our children breathe. And there is nowhere where they want to go further backwards than on immigration. It was not that long ago that my predecessor, George W. Bush, a Republican a conservative Republican from Texas, with whom I disagreed with on a whole lot of things, made immigration reform one of his core priorities. We cannot build a unified country, he said, by inciting people to anger or playing on anyone's fears or exploiting the issue of immigration for political gain. That is what he said. Think how much better our economy would be if the rest of his party got the message. Think about how much better off our country would be if Republican politicians had not spent years precisely trying to scare voters with tales of immigrants flooding across our borders and taking our jobs and destroying America as we know it, even though we know that when you look at what is happening at the borders, it is the lowest rates of immigration that we have seen since the 1970s. A clear majority of Americans, including a lot of Republican voters, support reform. That is one of the reasons we got a bipartisan bill through the Senate in 2013. But now some of the very same Republican politicians who championed reform in the past some of whom sponsored these efforts suddenly, they want nothing to do with it. In these circumstances, I always say, do not boo, vote. They cannot hear the boos, but they can hear your vote.

monologic

turning against what is right the moment the politics of your base gets tough. Leadership is not fanning the flames of intolerance and then acting all surprised when a fire breaks out. Saying clearly inflammatory things and then saying, well, that is not what I meant until you do it again and again and again. So we have got to decide whether or not we, as Americans, are willing to stand up against this kind of bigotry that the same cruel impulse that Ed Roybal spent a lifetime fighting against. The anti-immigrant sentiment that has infected our politics is not new, but it is wrong. It was directed at Irish folk. It was directed against Italians. There have been generations of immigrants that have been subject to this same kind of attitude, with some of the same stereotypes. And unless you were one of the First Americans unless you are Navajo or Cherokee somebody somewhere came from someplace else. I believe we need an immigration system that is fair and orderly and lawful. I believe that people who come here illegally should have to pay a fine and pay their fair share of taxes and get registered and get right with the law and go to the back of the line before they earn citizenship. But when I hear folks talking as if somehow those kids are different from my kids, as if they are less worthy in the eyes of God, that somehow their families are less worthy of our respect and consideration and care, as if somehow back in the day, everybody had their papers in order when they came here, but now suddenly, nobody has their papers in order I believe we are better than that. If you want to be taken seriously as a leader, you cannot just be against everything. You have got to be for something. You cannot just feed on fear. You should be feeding hope. You should be for fixing our immigration system. You should be for allowing DREAMers and their parents, who have been here for years, to live without fear in the country they love. You should tell the truth, which is that illegal border crossings are lower than they have been in decades and that economists agree that immigration does not hurt our economy, it grows our economy, creating jobs, raising wages for Americans. You do not hear those facts very often, but those facts those are facts. And you have got to recognize that America's greatness does not come from building walls. Our greatness comes from building opportunity. Our greatness comes from building an economy that works for everybody.

monologic

Today every man no matter where he stands stands in the center of the world. And we Americans, who want to reduce the distance between friends, believe that no man comes from so far off that he cannot find a welcome among us. So today we welcomed you as a guest in our country. And tonight we welcome you as a guest in our home. About you tonight, Mr. Chairman, though you have come from halfway across the world, you see old friends and you see others who have a deep interest in your country and want to know it better. For most of us, Burma has traditionally been a land of beauty and serenity, of golden temples, elephants, deep forests, and precious gems. But we know that behind that exotic exterior, your country is a land of hardworking people whose goals are very similar to ours. We love our children and we believe in living in peace with our neighbors provided they stay on their side of the fence, and out of our melon patch. to national independence, to progress, and to peace. Both our countries emerged from a colonial past and treasure independence all the more for that. Both have been blessed by Providence with a bountiful land. On the world scene, we both place high value on the just resolution of international differences and on the search for universal peace. This search has led us along different paths for our situations and our responsibilities have not been the same. But the ultimate goal is there one in which we both can share. For our part, I can assure you, Mr. Chairman, that just as we shall never shirk our responsibilities, so shall we never fail in our efforts to find a secure and just peace. For the present, the problems of our world place burdens upon us all. And we must be prepared to live with them until all nations have finally become convinced that aggression and terror have no place in human society. The day of peace will eventually come-a day when all nations will be able to live in their own way, free from threat and fear. When that day arrives, we shall be able to devote all our talents and resources to the war against the real enemies of mankind-poverty, sickness, and illiteracy in a vast cooperative effort. Thus shall we raise the hopes and enrich the lives of people throughout the world. Meanwhile, tonight in this room, we are among friends. And we should, for the moment, put aside our cares and. concerns and enjoy each other's company.

monologic

Let me begin by thanking Smith and Elizabeth for having us into this magnificent, beautiful place, for the Democrats again and specifically for Mel Carnahan; and for being such good friends and for being willing to be called Smith Barney and Bailey Smith and other names. I am sure there is a reward for you in heaven for enduring those slings and arrows. I want to thank the other Senators who have come here to express their support for you. I see Senator Boxer back there, Senator Murray, and Senator Cleland. But this is quite an outstanding turnout of your prospective colleagues. I also want all of you to know that I have a different take on this than everybody this race than everybody here who is not from Missouri, because Mel and Jean Carnahan have been friends of mine for along time. Robin has worked with me, and their children I have had a chance to know. I want you to know that you did a good thing tonight, contributing to his campaign, because he was a great Governor and because he is a good man and a good friend and because he will be a good Senator. I am for him in part because when only my mother thought I could be elected President in 1991 and my wife, as she never lets me forget Mel Carnahan was a Lieutenant Governor involved in a very difficult primary for Governor. He had all he could say grace over, and he still endorsed me for President in the Missouri primary. It was a brave and good thing to do, and I will never forget it. And I was the Governor of Arkansas. I was raised idolizing Harry Truman. When I was a young man here in the Senate, I worked for Senator Fulbright and got to watch Stuart Symington up close. And I may be the only person here who is actually known Senator Ashcroft for more than 20 years, besides Mel. We served together as attorney general and as Governor, and we always had a very cordial, personal relationship. But I can tell you that he actually believes all those things that the Republicans say. And I say that not to make you laugh but to say, you know, one of the things I do not like in a lot of these campaigns is, we get into all this name-calling and demonization. We act like, you know, what is really bad about our opponents is, they are doing these bad things, and they do not really believe them. That is not true about him. We can laugh about this, but that is what they think about us.

monologic

They think we are always playing to some crowd or another. And I think it is important to point out that most of us on both sides actually believe in what we are doing. It is what gives the political system integrity. The main reason that I want to see campaign finance reform, since I am not a candidate for anything anymore, and the main reason I really respect Smith because, you know, if we have campaign finance reform, it'll cost him a little less money, but then he will have to open his home and have evenings where we actually debate the issues, instead of hustle you for money. But the major reason we need to reform the campaign finance system, in my judgment, is that it is almost all the money goes to voter communication, and it is wrong to have unequal levels of voter communication. The people need to hear a full debate on both sides and have a full ability to evaluate the personalities of candidates on all sides in order to make good decisions. And the second main reason we need it is that the people in office and the people who want to get in office have to spend too much time raising money, and they are exhausted all the time, and they do not have enough time to read and think and talk to other people. I would say the third reason you need it is the reason all the press says, which is, you know, the corrupting influence of big money. The truth is that over 90 percent of the time way over 90 percent of the time the people in both parties in the Senate and in the House vote their convictions. And way over 90 percent of the time the people that give you money never ask you for anything, except to keep in touch with them and discuss the issues and talk about things and listen to them if they have got something on their minds. Anyway, to get back to the point I was making, I know both these men. And I do not have to demonize John Ashcroft. When we were young men together, we worked as attorney general together; we worked as Governor. I had a very cordial relationship with him. But he believes in how he is voted in the Senate, and I do not . And we should stop pretending that it does not make any difference who wins, or that it is all some game dominated by who gives money and all that. They won in the elections of '94. We won when we beat the contract on America. The people ratified our decision in '96.

monologic

We got together briefly in the welfare reform bill and in the Balanced Budget Act of '97. Then our approach was ratified in the '98 election. And then we won again when I vetoed their huge tax bill in '99, which would have undermined our ability to save Social Security and Medicare, balance the budget, pay off the debt, and keep investing in our future. But we have now had we have got an ongoing debate here about what kind of country we are going to be, what our responsibilities to each other are, and where we are going. Now, I know this man very well, Carnahan. I know him very well. We worked together for years. I went to Missouri more than any other State when we were promoting welfare reform because he did the best job of any Governor in America in requiring people who were able-bodied to get training and to go into the workplace and getting big businesses to help him, but also caring about the welfare of poor people, to make sure that the children had health care and the people had a decent place to live and the child care was there and the transportation was there. He did it right. And if he is in the Senate, he will do it right. I can also tell you that for Democrats, because we believe in activist Government, it is very important that we keep a certain number of innovative Governors coming into the U.S. Senate all the time, because they understand how this stuff works. And it is important that you have people from our part of the country elected to the Senate, so that we can defend it when we have to take tough votes on sensible gun safety measures, for example. It is not a hard vote for people who have no significant rural voters, no significant percentage for getting the NRA mailings all the time. It will be a hard vote for him. And he will take it, and he will do the right thing, but then he will know how to defend it, which is very, very important. But I want those of you who do not know Mel Carnahan to know you have an extraordinary opportunity here. I know this guy. He was there with me when I was practically all alone and running fifth in the polls in New Hampshire. You want somebody that will stay hitched in the tough times and take a decision when it is not selfevidently the right thing to do. He has been a fabulous Governor, and you heard him reel off the issues.

monologic

That is a nice crowd on a nice, cool day. We are here today to celebrate and expand our historic campaign to rescue American workers from job-killing regulations. Before I came into office, American workers were smothered by a merciless avalanche of wasteful and expensive and intrusive Federal regulation. These oppressive, burdensome mandates were a stealth tax on our people slashing take-home pay, suppressing innovation, surging the cost of goods, and shipping millions of American jobs overseas millions and millions and millions. Nearly 4 years ago, we ended this regulatory assault on the American worker, and we launched the most dramatic regulatory relief campaign in American history by far. For every one new regulation issued, we pledged that two Federal regulations would be permanently removed. We not only met that ambitious goal which, at the time, people said was impossible we vastly exceeded it. For every one new regulation added, nearly eight Federal regulations have been terminated. As you can see behind me, we have removed the gigantic, regulatory burden Americans have been forced to carry for decades, freeing our citizens to reach their highest potential. Our historic regulatory relief is providing the average American household an extra $3,100 every single year. And we are going up from that number. We are going up from that number. Joining us today is Vice President Mike Pence. We had a great day in Georgia yesterday, cutting regulations like nobody has ever seen before. And Small Business Administrator I love her name Jovita Carranza. They do an incredible job. I also want to thank the many State and local, tribal leaders who join us in this great cause. We appreciate it. What we have achieved together is truly without precedent never happened before. The previous administration added over 16,000 pages of heavy-handed regulations to the Federal Register. Under my administration, we have removed nearly 25,000 pages of job-destroying regulations more than any other President by far in the history of our country, whether it was 4 years, 8 years, or, in one case, more than 8 years. The prior administration piled up more than 600 major new regulations a cruel and punishing regulatory burden that cost the average American an additional $2,300 per year. These regulations also inflicted a steep economic toll on African American communities. By contrast, our reforms are putting more money into the pockets of hardworking Americans.

monologic

In addition to saving every family more than $3,000 per year, my administration has just issued another reform that my Council of Economic Advisers estimates will lower the price of new vehicles by more than $2,200 per vehicle. And I think we are going to get that up to $3,500 per vehicle. And, by the way, the vehicles will be better, they will be stronger, and they will be safer. Our regulation cuts are also delivering massive savings on broadband Internet services, and some home energy bills will be really historically cut it is actually amazing as well as historically low gasoline prices. At the same time, we saved our oil companies we are now the largest since we have been here the largest energy source in the world. But we saved them. They had a hard time a number of months ago and, frankly, for a long time but we have saved them. But $1.99, they were telling me and, in some cases, lower than that . We are bringing back consumer choice in home appliances so that you can buy washers and dryers, showerheads and faucets. So showerheads you take a shower, the water does not come out. You want to wash your hands, the water does not come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair I do not know about you, but it has to be perfect. Dishwashers you did not have any water, so you the people that do the dishes you press it, and it goes again, and you do it again and again. So you might as well give them the water because you will end up using less water. So we made it so dishwashers now have a lot more water. And in many places in most places of the country, water is not a problem. They do not know what to do with it. They do not have a problem. And old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs I brought them back. I brought them back. They are cheaper and they are better. That is important to all of us. And we brought them back, and they are selling like hotcakes. We stopped the egregious abuse of the Clean Water Act, which extreme activists have used to shut down construction projects all across our country. When I signed that legislation, I had many farmers and construction people standing behind me people that have not cried since they were a baby.

monologic

Some of them never even when they were a baby, and they were crying. Many people were cry we gave them back their life. They took away their land. They took away their rights. They took away their life. By reining in EPA overreach, my administration has returned the agency to its core mission of ensuring clean air, clean water, and a truly pristine natural environment. Our air now and our water is as clean as it is been in the last four decades. Yesterday, our country achieved yet another groundbreaking milestone by completing a sweeping overhaul of America's badly broken infrastructure approval process. It was totally out of control. Instead of taking up to 20 years to approve a major project, we are cutting the Federal permitting timeline it is already been done to a maximum of 2 years or less; in some cases, even less than one year. It is possible that it will not be good environmentally or safety-wise, in which case, at least in a period of a year or 2, we will raise the hand and you will not make it. But most projects will make it, but you will not go for 10, 15, 18 or 20 years. There are many horror stories that we could relay. We are reclaiming America's proud heritage as a nation of builders. My administration has also eliminated massive regulatory barriers in our battle against the China virus. These actions save countless lives, speeding up the production of equipment. That means ventilators like nobody has ever seen before. We are now making ventilators for countries all over the world. And medicine accelerating the delivery of lifesaving treatments and ensuring that we will have a vaccine in a record time. We are doing fantastically well on that. That'll be for another time, another meeting. But we are doing, on therapeutics and vaccines, incredibly well. No administration in history has removed more red tape more quickly to rescue the economy and to protect the health of our people. When you think of it, we are all set up; that as we get the vaccine or therapeutic and we are set up, militarily we are going to be delivering it in record time. We put an investment upfront. And we have logistical people generals, great people they are going to be delivering this all over the country as soon as we have it. And we have made tremendous progress. You have been reading about it. In total, we have taken more than 740 actions to suspend regulations that would have slowed our response to the China virus.

monologic

This includes lifting restrictions on manufacturers so that our great autoworkers could produce more than 100,000 ventilators. So we have done over 100,000 in 100 days. And we did not have ventilators. We were not set up for ventilators. We became a country that is making a lot of them, helping so many others countries that are never going to be in a position to make them. And we have saved a lot of lives. And there is never been a person in our country even though we started with almost nothing; I say the cupboard was bare when we took over. We started with nothing. There is never been a person in our country even though we had just absolutely no we were we were going on empty never been one person that needed a ventilator that did not get it. Take a long time to get them done. Not one person has ever needed a ventilator that did not get it. We made telemedicine thank you. The people here, they get no credit for it. I do not want any credit. They should get the credit, but they get no credit. But we have done a great job helping so many other countries now. We made telemedicine available to all American patients and allowed doctors to work across State lines. I will tell you, the telemedicine is something that is really gone up by thousands and thousands of percentage points of percent. Because what happened is people that would not even think of using telemedicine, all of a sudden, started using it, and it is really turned out to be good. Really, really turned out to be good, and it solved a lot of problems. Furthermore, I have ordered Federal agencies to look for ways to make these health care reforms totally permanent. Vice President Pence is also working closely with State, local, and tribal leaders to streamline occupational licensing. Over 30 States have taken steps to reduce these barriers to unemployment and to employment, and including a State that I love very much I have a little history in that State the great State of Alaska. In Idaho, Governor Brad Little, who is here today with us as well, set a new record for regulatory relief. The American people know best how to run their own lives. They do not need Washington bureaucrats controlling their every move and micromanaging their every decision.

monologic

With each regulation we cut, we are not only returning the money and the power to our citizens, we are draining the Washington swamp, and they are not happy about it I can tell you that. I think you know that. I want to just, as ENTITY, say that I will always fight to defend your rights and your freedoms. We will fight very hard for your rights and your freedoms. The hard left wants to reverse these extraordinary gains and re-impose these disastrous regulations. They want to take what we have taken off, Jim, and they want to they want to put them back on. And I guess they can do that. You will fight them for a little while, but eventually you will lose. And they want to bury our economy under suffocating, relentless landslides of Washington redtape like we had before I got here. We must never return to the days of soul-crushing regulation that ravaged our cities, devastated our workers, drained our vitality and right out of our people and thoroughly crippled our Nation's prized competitive edge. We have great, great people. Our entire economy and our very way of life are threatened by Biden's plans to transform our Nation and subjugate our communities through the blunt-force instrument of Federal regulation at a level that you have not even seen yet. You have not even seen it yet. They want to go many times what they put you under in the past. Under the unity platform Joe Biden published with socialist Bernie Sanders, they are proposing and this is all in writing; it is done; they agreed they are proposing to reenter the job-killing, unfair Paris Climate Accord, which will cost our country trillions of dollars trillions and trillions of dollars and put us in a very, very bad competitive position relative to the world. Not surprising to you, China will be greatly advanced under this ridiculous agreement, and so will Russia, so will many other countries. They propose to mandate net-zero emissions from all new homes and buildings, skyrocketing the cost of construction and putting the goal of homeownership out of reach for millions destroying the look of the home, the beauty of the home. I am somebody that is built many homes, many buildings. If you take a look at this, it does not look good. But they have put it out of reach, from a cost standpoint.

monologic

They want to eliminate carbon from the U.S. energy industry, which means abolishing all American oil, clean coal, and natural gas. The result of this Federally mandated shutdown would be the wholesale destruction of the entire energy industry and many other industries, the economic evisceration of entire communities, and the unfettered offshoring of millions of our best jobs to foreign countries and foreign polluters. Millions and millions of jobs would go. Thousands and thousands of countries would be at a level that you have never seen. Companies would be disappearing left and right, just like they did with NAFTA, which we terminated for the USMCA, which was another beauty that we have done not for now, but another great beauty. But thousands of companies, plants, factories would be closed. Under this dismal future, energy would be unaffordable for the vast majority of Americans, and the American Dream would be sniffed out so quickly and replaced with a socialist disaster. The Democrats in DC have been and want to, at a much higher level, abolish our beautiful and successful suburbs by placing far-left Washington bureaucrats in charge of local zoning decisions. They are absolutely determined to eliminate single-family zoning, destroy the value of houses and communities already built, just as they have in Minneapolis and other locations that you read about today. Your home will go down in value and crime rates will rapidly rise. Joe Biden and his bosses from the radical left want to significantly multiply what they are doing now. And what will be the end result is you will totally destroy the beautiful suburbs. Suburbia will be no longer as we know it. So they wanted to defund and abolish your police and law enforcement while at the same time destroying our great suburbs. The suburb destruction will end with us. Next week, I will be discussing the AFFH rule AFFH rule, a disaster and our plans to protect the suburbs from being obliterated by Washington Democrats, by people on the far left that want to see the suburbs destroyed, that do not care. People have worked all their lives to get into a community, and now they are going to watch it go to hell. The Biden-Bernie plan would also use the weapon of Federal regulation to tie the hands of our police departments by abolishing cash bail think of that. They killed somebody? Crime in New York City up 368 percent from just a short while ago.

monologic

They got rid of a lot of police, and they are in the process of doing it a billion dollars. When I first heard about it, when you first heard about it, you did not think it was real. But they are actually trying to put it into play. It will mean the end of this country. So by getting rid of bail, they are incentivizing jail and prison closures they want to get rid of prisons; they do not think anybody should go to prison setting loose violent criminals; appointing left-wing social justice prosecutors, like you have in Philadelphia, where people creating and doing the most criminal of acts are let go, in many cases immediately, and making our wonderful cops our great, great police, cops subordinate to distant bureaucrats who have never spent a day in their lives fighting crime. Unlike the Socialists, we believe in the rule of the people, not the rule of the unelected bureaucrats that do not know what they are doing. We believe in the dignity of the individual, not the iron grip of the State. Our regulatory reforms are vital not only to the success of our economy, but the strength of our democracy and the survival of liberty itself. My administration will continue pressing forward until we have made every last vestige of Washington fully, completely, and totally accountable to the citizens of the United States. the doctors who care for our country, the truckers who sustain our country, and the farmers and ranchers who preserve our country in all of its majestic beauty. God bless you and God bless America. We must have said something right. I guess we said it absolutely right. It is about our country. It is about our country. We want to be strong, we want to respect everybody, but we have to have strong law enforcement. And that is taking place in the areas that we are responsible for. We want others to call us for help. We were going into Seattle, all set to go, and then they did it themselves. Minneapolis we said, Get the guard in there. They have done a fantastic job. As soon as they showed up, it was like a knife cutting through butter. You saw that, right? It was not the police's fault in in any of these places. The police are, generally speaking, they do a great job. That is not what they wanted to do. But the National Guard came in, and we did a great job. No problem after that, do you notice?

monologic

We just passed a statues and monument Executive order. They see that beautiful look at it right there. It is so beautiful the Washington Monument. If they had the choice, they'd take it down. And I guarantee you they'd rename it. They want to rename it. They do not know what they want. They just want to destroy our country. So we have many exciting things that we will be announcing over the next 8 weeks, I would say. Things that nobody has even contemplated, thought about, thought possible, and things that we are going to get done and we have gotten done and we have started in most cases. But it is going to be a very exciting 8 weeks, a 8 weeks, like I think, Mike, we can honestly say nobody has ever going to see 8 weeks like we are going to have. Because we really have we have we are taking on immigration, taking on education, we are taking on so many aspects of things that people were hopelessly tied up in knots in Congress. They cannot they have been working on some of these things for 25, 30 years. But you will see levels of detail, and you will see levels of thought that a lot of people believed very strongly we did not have in this country. We are going to get things done that they have wanted to see done for a long, long time. So I think we will start sometime on Tuesday. We will be discussing our one plan on suburbia, but that is one of many, many different plans. Then we are going into the immigration the world of immigration, the world of education. We are going into the world of health care very complete health care. And we have a lot of very exciting things to discuss. But cutting of regulation has been really something that I felt we could do, and we could do fairly easily. Nothing is easy in this country. We had statutory requirements where we'd do phase one, and then we'd have to wait 90 days. We'd do phase two, and we'd have to wait 60 days. You'd do phase three, and we are set Let us do phase four, sir. But we were able to do things that nobody has ever been able to do, or even close, on deregulation. I do not know who thought of this idea, but it is actually quite, quite simple and quite good. I do not love having that big sucker hanging over my head. But I do want to thank you all.

monologic

You know, this is really not a rally, you know this, this has to do with workers, programs, all the things we love, but this is really, we call it a friendly protest. And you know what we are protesting? We are protesting stupidity. But hello, I will tell you what Ohio, how good have you been? What did we win by? And your governor's here, and he just said you are winning by a lot more this time than last time. I am thrilled to be here in Dayton, the home of the Wright Brothers, wow. I wonder what they would think when they see some of these F-35s and these crazy planes that we make nowadays that go thousands of miles an hour, right? But I want to just thank the very hard working patriots who are the backbone of America. You are the backbone of America. This is an amazing group of people. You know, I am going to another very nice spot in Ohio where we do have a rally, but I cannot imagine you have many more people than we have here, but they will, about 10 times more. No, this is for us and our friends and workers. We want workers. 43 days from now, We are going to win this state. We are going to win four more years in the White House. You had your best year in the history of your state and the history of our country last year. And we had it until the plague came in, and now we are building it up again rapidly, but you had the best year, and we are going to have next year will be the best year we have ever had. I believe that. You will see that in the third quarter. But we are here today to talk about jobs. We are talking about jobs, a very favorite subject of mine to know and to understand that the choice in November is going to be very simple. They keep saying socialism. They have got over that one, that one's passed already. Joe Biden spent the last 47 years shipping your jobs to China, and foreign countries. You know that. And I have spent the last four years bringing the jobs back to our country, and back to Ohio.

monologic

On November 3rd, Americans will decide whether we lift our nation to soaring new heights of prosperity, or whether we will allow a Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe, to shut down our economy, impose a four trillion, that is with a T, by the way, $4 trillion tax hike, abolish Ohio clean coal, oil, natural gas, and ship your jobs and factories and dreams overseas to China and countries that you have never even heard of. If we win, Ohio wins, and most importantly, in all fairness, America wins. Because you finally have a president who puts America first. And I do put America first. I guess that is why almost four years ago, that is why I did this, right? It is because of this, probably more than any other reason. I never saw anything so stupid in my life. I watched the worst trade deals, and we have reversed many of them, almost all of them now, but we have reversed them. And again, we were having the greatest year we have ever had, and it is going to be back very soon. You take a look at what is happening. We are joined today by a real good friend of mine. Somebody that is been with me from the beginning. And I have been with him from the beginning, Ohio Governor, Mike DeWine. I will tell you another one, Mike Turner. Thanks for all the help too, both of you, really appreciate it. And a man, I do not know if you know him. He should become legendary, because when we did not have a lot of support, I had a guy named Bob Paduchik, do you know Bob? He kept saying, every time I said, You know, we are not getting the kind of support from the top people. We won this state by a lot. It is a lot of it back there too, a lot of fake news. But they were going around Mike, hey Mike, they were going around saying, Well, Trump may not be able to, in order to when you have to win Ohio, right? And then for a year, I heard, You cannot win unless you win the great state of Ohio. But they did not say the great state, I say the great state. And I heard it. I heard it for so long. And then we won that night by what? We won by a lot. In fact, it was the first indication that that was going to be a tough night for the Democrats.

monologic

They said, Ladies and gentlemen, not only did Trump win Ohio, he won by a hell of a lot more than we anticipated. And then we won, look at these guys. That is why I love these guys. Nobody's messing with these guys. You know, they are great workers, but we use them also for security. If everyone gets a little bit rough, you will take care, right fellas? But we won it big, and that was the beginning of one of the most exciting nights in history, because we did something in 2016 that was amazing. And I will tell you, honestly, there is more enthusiasm now, and this is fact. In fact, they have a new thing. First of all, you know, we are working very hard on getting a third Supreme Court Justice. The only thing I will say, for the women, it will be a woman. Does anybody here, please raise your hand if you have the courage, is there anybody here that insists that it will be and should be a man? Supreme Court Justice, most powerful, most important, just the most important, you know, when you become president, they say, This is the single most important thing a president does, is pick Supreme Court And by the way, by the end of the first term, we will have 300 federal judges, a record. So let us give me a free poll. We do this, I have such fun with it. We do it. If they go out, they charge hundreds of thousands of dollars. They interview like 19 people, which mean nothing. Here we got a lot of people. So give me a free poll, who would like to see a woman Justice of the Supreme Court. Who would like to see a male Justice of the Supreme Court. What is that all about? It will be, I have five that we are vetting right now. And we are looking forward to it. And it will probably announce it on Saturday, maybe Friday, but Saturday. And it is a big day for our country. It is a big day for you. It is a big day for Ohio. I always love, why'd you say that? Like big day for Ohio, and I do it somewhat routinely. Do you ever notice when Biden goes out, and he always picks the wrong location. Like if he is in Ohio, it is great to be in the state of Florida. And he looks around, and he does not see too many palm trees.

monologic

He says, Are we in Florida? He did that seven times. How do you do that? When you do that, you just walk off the stage. You can make the greatest remainder of the speech, there is nothing you can do to save it. But the people of Dayton know better than anyone, the terrible damage that Biden has inflicted over his nearly 50 years, 47 years to be exact. Can you believe it? For 47 years, Joe Biden shook the hands of American workers, and then stabbed them in the back. I mean, think of it, all over, and they raked in cash. They raked in big money. I will tell you. What did I say, Where is, Where is he? You know, we did that for fun. We did a t-shirt. That thing sold, we come up with these little gems. He is in the basement with his father. He had no job, he was thrown out of the military, he was thrown out. He had no job. And then he goes to Ukraine, and he gets $183,000 a month. Although he had no experience whatsoever, knew nothing about the subject of the company, which you know, was energy. energy. I think they got an upfront payment of three million just to be able to get them. I'd take that one myself. Then they go to China, he walks out with one point five billion to manage, which is millions of dollars a year. The whole thing is crazy and the fake news does not want to cover it. They do not want to cover it. Did you see the interview the other day with Anderson Cooper, the other night? We have a debate coming up and who knows, look he is been doing this You know what, he is been doing it for 47 years. I have been doing it for three and a half years, so he should be able to beat me I would think, he is much more experienced. But he betrayed you, he lied to you, he abused you, which is why it is time to retire Joe Biden, this is serious stuff. Do we have any Teamsters here? All right, well, I did a big favor for the Teamsters, they had trucking company. They saved 30,000 jobs, but then every year they always endorse the Democrat, does not matter, good or bad. And James Hoffa, I am so disappointed in that guy.

monologic

So I called, I said, I'd love to get their support. They have already endorsed sleepy Joe Biden. It is like automatic, but you know who does not endorse him, all the workers underneath and they will either throw him out or he will retire. You get tired of it, it is like automatic. They endorse the Democrat because the Democrats do whatever the hell they want. But the workers, the people underneath, the real people, they are with us all the way. I have hired thousands and thousands of Teamsters, all the concrete work on buildings in Manhattan. It is almost like a habit. But I saved this company, a big company, good company, great people. We saved it. And then you say unrelated, totally unrelated, Hey, we'd love to have you. You always have to remember things. On November 3rd, we must turn the page forever on the failed corrupt political class. They get so much things that are so unfair to the rest of our country and that is why they are always with that top level of Democrat but the workers are with us. Globalists are out, you know that right? Globalist destroyed, they helped destroy this country. I will tell you if I did not come along, I really mean it. This country was, it was going down and we stopped it. If you look at your Second Amendment, if you look at so many different things, no matter what it is. You look at our jobs, our jobs prior to the plague and now coming back. You take a look at car sales are record setting. It is amazing because we had such a good foundation. We closed it up, we saved millions of lives. We had no choice, we had to do that. And then we opened it and now we are rocking and it is going good. But the Democrats really waged war on the American workers for half a century. Look what they have done. Biden's policies destroyed 60,000 factories and killed four point, think of it, four point five million manufacturing jobs. We brought back 700,000 when they said, right, they said the magic wand, you cannot do it, manufacturing jobs are gone. Biden championed the NAFTA disaster and China's entry into the World Trade Organization, which was a total catastrophe. That is when China started going up like a rocket. They are considered in the world trade, they are considered a developing nation.

monologic

By being a developing nation they get all sorts of advantages over us. So we have been protesting it and we do things that you would not believe. You do not even want to hear about it because it is disgraceful. And therefore for years and years, they had big advantages over the United States but no more. What followed was the nothing short, and think of it, nothing short of a blue collar carnage and it was in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, New Hampshire, Michigan. You know how many car plants we are bringing back to Michigan. Nobody's ever seen it. For 40 years, they did not build a plant. And now they are building them all over. And I tell countries, I told a great gentleman, he just retired, Prime Minister Abe of Japan. I said, Shinzo, you got to build plants here, you cannot do this. You are building your cars in Japan and sending them. He said, Well, that is not up to me, that is up to the company. That is all right, Shinzo, I know you can do it. The next day they announced five plants, I mean, what can I tell you? I know my people, it is up to Shinzo, it was not up to anybody else, but he is great. The workers of America will never forget Biden's economic treachery. They will remember in November after Biden betrayed and think of it, all the betrayals on NAFTA and China, 40% of all of the manufacturing jobs were shipped out of Dayton. And now the good thing is your roads, you did not have a lot of traffic. By 2016, the per capita income in Dayton had fallen 12% below the national average of $50,000. Remember this, this all happened I mean, these numbers are incredible what is happened in three years. Ohio lost one in three manufacturing jobs, two out of three iron and steel mill jobs. And now of course his ideology has changed. He is so far left that he is just so you understand, he has no choice. You see where Kamala, Kamala, she another great one that one. You see her poll numbers, her poll numbers were going down and I cannot nobody treated him worse than Kamala, right? And she said the Harris administration and working with Joe Biden, did you see that? And I heard that, I actually heard that live, although it is not real live, I will tell you.

monologic

I mean, if he makes it, it is going to be I am going to come back to Dayton and I am going to say what the hell happened? I will have lost to the worst presidential candidate in the history of politics. I really believe that. The guy cannot speak without the teleprompter, although I am telling you, I am telling you, I think she says. I hope you are Thank you. I tell you the country cannot afford it. One thing I have learned is that President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, every one of these leaders, they are not shot. And we cannot have somebody that is sleepy. Oh, would they like to see him though? Did you see, would they like to see Joe? It is their dream to see Joe. How about Iran, you think around might like to see Joe Biden? They'd go back, they say give me another $150 billion. We gave them 150 billion. We gave them one point eight billion in cash. You know what that looks like, one point eight billion in cash? And I will tell you what, if and when we win, we will get a call within about nine seconds after the victory and it'll be Iran, it is going to want to make a deal. We want them to make a deal. They just cannot have a nuclear weapon. You cannot have a nuclear weapon. But I told people, I said, Do not talk to them now, look, they want to wait. If they could do that, if China could do it, I mean, think of it. If Russia could do it, by the way, nobody's been tougher on Russia than me with the sanctions. No, you never heard of Nord Stream until I came along. I said to Germany, let me get this straight. We defend Germany, right? We defend Germany and that is it. They do not pay what they are supposed to pay, they are delinquent, they are delinquent. So I said to Angela and I like Angela, but I said, but she is smart, why should she pay if she does not have to. So I said, Angela, so we defend you against Russia and you pay billions of dollars to Russia. Explain to me what is that all about? But you never heard about that stuff. We'd give tank busters to Ukraine.

monologic

We sell them in theory, I do not know if we will ever get the money. We sell them. But he gave pillows, maybe he got them from Mike Lindell, the pillow man. You think when Obama sent pillows over to Ukraine, I send tank busters, they sent pillows. Let me tell you, we have been very rough but at the same time we get along. I like Putin, he likes me. I get along or I got along with President Xi, but I do not know, after what happened here I am having a hard time with China, I really am. They are buying a lot, the trade deal has been incredible. They have been living up to it in all fairness. But it means less now, you understand. If we would not have been hit with this pandemic, which they could've stopped, it would have meant a lot. But it just means a lot less to me right now. So now after selling you out and bleeding you dry, Biden is back asking for your vote. The guy, when he was in prime time, which for him was about halftime. Long time ago, I had a friend, a senator, a Democrat, believe it or not. I used to get along with Democrats very well, actually better than the Republicans, but I will not say that. But I asked him, Who is your smartest senator? And he gave me a name. Well, now he is a lot dumber than it used to be, I can tell you. And you can take the gloves up because they do all this disinformation, they make up phony stuff. Like the military with what he said, I think it is a disgrace and he should apologize. I have 27 people that said, no way, it did not happen. So when they do that, you take the gloves off, that is all. And nobody's done for the military what I have done. We have totally rebuilt our military. We have the greatest weapons in the world. We have gotten raises for our great warriors. Our vet just got a 91% approval rating, the highest in the history of the V.A., our vets. They gave it a 91, the V.A., gave it a 91% approval rating. Nobody's done more, nobody. We have weapons, the likes of which nobody's ever seen before. Hope to God we do not have to use them but nobody has them.

monologic

Not China, not Russia, nobody has the weaponry that we have. We have the greatest weapons in the world and hopefully do not have to use them. Just remember that, we have the I call it the super-duper missiles, like at a level that nobody's ever seen before. You do not see them either. I hear a noise over there. I call it super-duper, because super-duper is easier for people to understand then hydrosonic. But we have the greatest two point five trillion dollars we spent. The greatest weapons that this world has ever seen without a question, I do not have to say what they are. In fact, the fake news said, He just gave away classified information. I said, No, I just said we have the greatest weapons. I did not tell you what they are. I could, because as president I am allowed to do it. I mean, Hillary Clinton is the one that gives her white classified information. I mean, he comes in and all he wants to do is go to war with everybody. If I listened to that idiot, we'd be right now in World War Five. Sir, we saw some movement in China. I think we should go to war with them. And I think Russia, let us do them both at the same time. Let us also go in right now to North Korea. Hey, do you remember North Korea? We were supposed to be at war with North Korea. You know what the press said? First they said it was amazing and those people lost their job, probably. It is amazing what I have done, they said. No, we are supposed to be at war. They have a lot of nuclear stuff, it would not be easy. Although, I tell you what I took over our military was totally depleted. We had a depleted mil-, we had old planes, we had old everything. And now it is a beautiful brand new we have F-35s that you cannot see. We have all new rockets, all new missiles, brand new planes, the bombers, the tankers, the jet fighters. What we have done is incredible. And we had to do it, somebody had to do it. Somebody said, well, we are sort of doing some damage to our budget. I said, Look, I want to have a strong military.

monologic

If I see some people, some soldiers from foreign lands, right, walking up or running up the White House lawn, the beautiful south lawn of the White House. I am not going to be saying, We did not do too well with the military, but we kept it under control in the budget, right? No, the military supersedes everything. I do not know, to me, I have always heard the Supreme Court. But to me, the most important thing has always been the military, our defense and our offense if needed. Joe Biden should not be asking for your support. He should be begging for your forgiveness and he should be. Biden supported the disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership. This building would not be here if you ever did that one. Which would have been a death sentence for the U.S. auto industry and other industries. He supported the horrendous Korea deal, okay. Although I guess he had he was vice, Hey, you know what is interesting with Biden? So he always says, Why did not the president do this. And why did not the president do that? That is been there for 47 years, but he just left like three and a half years ago. You know what I mean, he was there. And I keep saying, Why did not you do it? Why did not you do it? Why did not you do it sleepy Joe? But the Korea deal and I say it all the time. She said, This will create 250,000 jobs. The problem was the jobs were all produced in South Korea, so that did not work out to well. Anyway, I renegotiated the deal in its entirety, now it is a good deal. That was a rip, I will tell you. And the pro-China Paris Climate Accord, it is pro-everything, it is pro-everybody but us. That would have cost us trillions of dollars, and we would have had the privilege of closing down Dayton's probably 25% of your companies. You could have never, you could have never done it. And you know when I did it, I thought I'd be scorned. They understood it. With every decision, Joe Biden twisted a knife into the hands and heart of the American worker. But these brutal betrayals ended the day I took the oath of office, that is true. I mean, I saw so much stupidity, the endless wars and we are almost out of Afghanistan as you know.

monologic

Not easy to get out because we have people in this country, the military industrial complex. Eisenhower called it the military industrial complex, and it does exist. It is not easy to get out, but we are very close to getting out and getting out of the Middle East. We are down to very little in Iraq. We are down to almost nothing in Syria, but I will be honest with you, we kept the oil. Somebody said, You still have some soldiers in Syria? I said, That is why they kept the oil. We kept the oil. We should have done that in Iraq. Remember I used to say a long time ago before I was, Do not go into the Middle East, but if you are going to go in and keep the oil. Well, we went in and we did not keep anything and all the death, the blood in the sand, I call it the blood in the sand, that worthless sand. All of that death that has been caused for no reason. It was the worst decision in the history of our country going into the Middle East. 8 trillion and nothing but death and millions of lives if you look at both sides, I will look at both sides. Somebody would say, Oh, I should not be looking at the other side. I look at both sides/ a lot of innocent people were killed. We lost incredible soldiers. I see the coffins, the caskets come in in Dover and I see it. Why did they do this? My first week, I withdrew from the transpacific partnership and saved that whole business of so much and what I had to do is I extended for a short time and then totally ended NAFTA. And we did the USMCA, Mexico, Canada. We have a great deal. You always liked to have an unhappy person at the other sides. But they had a free rip at us for years and years and years, NAFTA. How many buildings, how many factories did you lose right here? Where they moved over to Mexico, moved up to Canada, moved all over the place, but that is not going to happen anymore. The new deal makes it very prohibitive to do that. In 2017, I signed a historic executive order making it really something. You got to do a couple of little expressions it is called buy American and hire American. You know life is crazy in politics. Biden runs for president like two or three times, right? And I used to call him 1% Joe.

monologic

And that was primetime for him, right? Now that primetime is long over, he ends up winning the nomination. But had if Elizabeth Warren left and been loyal to her communist ideology, dare say socialist, but it is communist. It was pretty close. But had she left before Super Tuesday, Biden would've lost every state, but she took the votes away from Bernie. When they talk about sportsmanship, he got screwed by Hillary Clinton badly, but not as badly as this time, this was worse. Because all Pocahontas had to do is leave a day early. She did not even have to endorse him. And the votes that she got, which were not many, but far more than he needed, because he lost a couple of states by literally a small amount of votes. He would've gotten most of those votes. Sleepy Joe, who says Sleepy Joe? Who says Bernie? Bernie had more spirit. Joe's got no spirit, it is dead as a rock. The only spirit he is got is spirit to beat me. And historically that does not do that well. If you look at old races when somebody's getting votes because they do not like somebody, you know there is an ideology that let us face it does not like me too much. Somebody said, We do not like his personality. I said, I always thought I had a good personality. They do not like my personality. Who the hell cares about my personality, right? I do not like their personality either, but they get the job done. Who cares about their personality? But when Sleepy Joe was vice president and other countries flooded our market Thank you very much. Have you ever tried opera? But other countries flooded our market with subsidized washing machines. You remember that disaster? Does anybody know about the Whirlpool plant in Clyde, Ohio? And the head of Whirlpool came to see me. I was president-elect and he called and I do not know, for some reason I have heard of Whirlpool and I have heard of it all my life, I guess. I did not know much about it. They made washing machines and I never knew, I knew they were dumping steel on us and dumping certain things. But I did not know they were dumping washing machines. And he was a good guy, came up to my office and he said, They are putting us out of business, South Korea, China, they are dumping washing machines.

monologic

They make washing machines. They dump them into our market. They put everybody out of business. Then they charge you a lot of money when everyone's gone. Just like other people do right now, unfortunately, but we are trying to track them down. Somehow it hit me. So we put a 50% tariff on all washing machines coming into our country. And I visited with Jim Jordan. You know Jim Jordan? That he works with our guys here, your guys. And we went up and saw the plant and then making thousands a day. I mean, they gave me a number, it cannot be positive. I think they said like 20,000 a day. I said, How the hell can you make that many washing machines? But you know what I am talking about Congressmen, right? They are making thousands of washing machines a day and it is a vibrant company again, it was dead, it was going to close. But I evened up the score, I put the tariffs and now what they are doing is LG and Samsung, and these companies that made the washing machine they are now coming into the United States. And in order to avoid the tariff, they are building plants in the United States and that is okay and that is what we should be doing. We are going to be doing it a lot more too. We are going to be doing it a lot more. Biden allowed other countries to target our steel industries and it was like a disaster for our steel industry, but we took historic action to end these practices and place strong tariffs on foreign aluminum and steel. And it brought back our steel. Now steel plants are opening or being upgraded in Toledo, Marion, Cuyahoga Heights, Mingo Junction, and all across the Midwest. For defense, you need it. You do not want to talk war. You do not want to talk about that, but if we had a problem, what are you going to do? Well, we do not have any steel mills. Let us see if we can get some steel from China. But sir, you are fighting them. No, we had to save our steel. We had to save our aluminum industry and we have done it. We have done a great job, but you have a lot of steel mills going up right here in Ohio. And a lot of them being expanded. As vice president, Biden did nothing as China stole our intellectual property, flooded our markets with dumped goods. They are the greatest in the world at that.

monologic

I go to my guys, they said, What about doing a little movement on the dollar? Sir, we cannot do that. Well, China does it. China, you talk about a manipulation. Man, it is like a yo-yo. Let us see, let us raise it. Let us lower it, lets do this and that. But we actually called them on it, did not we Congressman? Turner, by the way, you did such a good job. You are a hell of a lawyer. You could represent me any day. He actually did represent me. And then you had Jordan into it. They liked him though, do not they huh? They like Jim. And they poisoned our communities with fentanyl. You know that? Instead, Biden allowed China to ravage our towns, raid our factories and rip apart our communities. That is what they did. And then he goes in and he brings his son. Hey, see if you can give him some money. I went to Steve Schwarzman. Steve Schwarzman is like one of the biggest guys on Wall Street, Blackstone. He does a lot of business with China said, Steve, what are the chances of somebody walking into an office in China and in 10 minutes, walking out with 1.5 billion to manage? He said, Zero. He said, I could not do it and I have this great company. Then he says, You are not getting your billion dollars unless you get rid of that damn prosecutor. And then they says, They got rid of the prosecutor. I am so angry at Republicans. I am so angry, but a lot of things are happening. You are seeing, you are reading the papers also. A lot of things are happening. You know they spied on my campaign and we caught them. And by the way, that is Biden, that is Obama. They spied on my campaign. Comey and all the sleazebags, they spied on my campaign and we caught them. I stay out of it. I just say, I am trying like hell to stay out of it. Barry is shaking his head sort of like that is the weakest yes, but it is true. But it is true, I am trying to stay out of it. I tell you what, these people are bad people. They have done things. What they have done to General Flynn and to other people is a disgrace.

monologic

And many others, but Joe Biden's agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in the USA. And I took the toughest ever action to stand up to China and their decades of pillaging, plundering, looting, including these massive tariffs. Do not forget, I charged tariffs. They targeted our great farmers. Do we have any farmers here? We gave the farmers $28 billion. Because they were targeted for 28 over a two-year period, 12 and 16. Did you get your check? And you might not be in business if I did not do that. She gave me the right answer. It is always dangerous to do that. No, I never got the money. She got the money. But once again, Joe Biden has sided with China over America. Look, you think this guy's going to be tough in China? And then he takes ads. He is going to be tough on China. This guy, they looted him and Obama. And in all fairness, not just the eight years, this has gone on for 25, 30 years. Probably the biggest reason I decided to run and give up one of the greatest lives anyone's ever had for this, for this. But you know why I like it? Because we have done more in the first three and a half years than any administration in the history of the country. And I say that and these fake news people do not even question it. There is nobody done what we have done. All of the things, we could go on forever. But Biden vowed to remove those tariffs. He wants to remove the tariffs. You know when I made the deal with China, I said I have to leave the tariffs on. They wanted one thing, the removal of the tariffs, and I would not do it. We would not do it. But Biden said the other day, he wants to take the He does not know what a tariff is first of all. Sleepy Joe would like to remove the tariffs off China. They are paying billions of dollars a year. Could we take them off? The radical left, which likes China, the radical left would walk into his office. I have not exactly used it too much today. And they will say, Here President, sign this. Do you have a pen? That is the deal with China. But he gave China free rein to continue ransacking the American Heartland. And you know, look, they were targeting you.

monologic

The reason nobody took on China was China said, We are going to go after your heartland. And they said that to the presidents. And I said, Go ahead, do it. They all said, We have got to do it sometime. They told me that. I mean, they told me that loud and clear. We did not lose anything with the farmers. They said, Somebody's got to do it. And I said, Here is what we are going to do. We are going to let them target you. We are going to charge them tariffs and going to give you back the money that you lost, that you were targeted for. And we are going to have tens of billions leftover for the treasury. Nobody else ever told him that. He is too scared to stand up to the radical left of his own party. And he is terrified of standing up to China, but I believe he is much more scared of the radical left than he is of China. You see the reports and news reports. They want him to win at any cost. If Biden is elected, China will own America. And if Biden is elected, you will have a depression the likes of which this country has never seen before. That is what they are going to have. Does anybody mind paying more tax? I like politics. I just always liked it. It is lucky I liked it because I never did it before. He is got no experience. And now that I look around yesterday, I was in the Oval Office, I said, Oh, excuse me. No, but a lot of it is common sense. That is why we call it protest. We are studying some of the things. I will tell you one quick story. So we are building an aircraft carrier long before my term, the Gerald Ford. And they decide on the catapults. You know the catapult? That throws the plane into the air. For years, it is been 50 years, whatever longer, it is been steam, simple, beautiful steam throws her off You ever see those airplanes? I came in and they said, Oh, it is got tremendous cost overruns. That is strange because they have been building them for years. You know about this. So anyway, I am supposed to go over and take a tour. I went to take a tour of the ship, find out why it is so late. I will not tell you how many billions of dollars it is over budget.

monologic

Other than that, it is wonderful. The elevators that bring the planes up, they do not work. So if you have a problem, you can get your plans up. They are down stuck in a garage, down at the bottom. So I go over and they want me to meet the admiral, but I said, No, no, no. I do not want to meet the admiral yet. I meet with the admirals a lot. I got a lot of admirals. I like the admirals. I want to meet with the catapultors. Sir, why would you want to meet with the catapultors for? So I went there and you know they did a new system. So instead of steam, which is simple and great and powerful and good. And they know how it works for years and years, they decided to go all electric. Now if you take a little glass of water, take this glass of water, you throw it and that is the end of that. You bring somebody in from MIT, how the hell do you fix it? And we are dealing with the ocean and rockets being shot at the ship and the rough stuff. So I said, No, I want to meet with a catapultor. One's been doing it for over 20 years I think he said. I said, What do you think of our new system of electric catapults? That is actually it is what I expected it to be on. I said, What do you think of steam? That if it breaks down, I can fix it with a blowtorch or this hammer, I can fix it. And if the waves hit it, sir, all it does is cool it down a little bit, sir. It is actually good for it, good for the surrounding steel. I said, Why did they do the electric? Then I wanted to see the architect and I saw a representative, the architect of ship. Now this is a ship that costs $15 billion. And I looked at the architect. I said, Have you designed a ship before? I said, You know, they have a $900 million cost overrun for electric catapults, and they are no good even if they were. I said to the guy, Why is it that they did away? Sir, we could do it much faster. I said, All right, well, that makes sense.

monologic

But the catapulter said, But sir, it does not matter because it takes one minute and 52 seconds, if you are Mario Andretti's team, to get a plane hooked in. So the steam generates during that minute and a half and it is all set to go. I said, That makes sense. That makes sense. So it is $900 million in cost overruns and here is the story. They spent much more money and it is no good. Then they have the elevators. Now, tractors use hydraulic, right? You know, they could do anything. Lightning hits the damn thing and nothing happens. So they have these big elevators that lift the planes up. They are lifted by magnets. I know about that. So instead of using powerful hydraulic that never breaks, they have magnetized elevators. I tell you this because you are workers and you guys understand this. It is what we do is so stupid. So they have hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overrun for stuff that is no good. And two years ago I told them it is no good. You might as well rip it out because it is never going to work. You put hydraulic in the elevators and you go back to steam and it is such a shame to see the kind of money that was squandered by people that have no idea what the hell they are doing. And you would understand that. I'd only tell that story to really sort of a group like this because you guys understand it. It is mechanical engineering at a very easy level. Hundreds of millions of dollars wasted for something not as good. Our politicians spent trillions and trillions of dollars rebuilding foreign nations, fighting foreign Wars, and defending foreign borders. But now we are finally protecting our nation, rebuilding our cities. We are bringing our jobs, our factories, and our troops back home to the USA where they belong. When the terrible plague arrived from China, we mobilized American industry like never before. We rapidly developed lifesaving therapies reducing the fatality rate by 85%. We have done such a good job, except in terms of public relations because the press just will not accept that. Think of what we have done with the ventilators. Europe is almost 30% greater excess mortality than the United States. They do not want to say it. And now, as you know, you heard today, Europe had a tremendous outbreak. You know, they say, Well, Europe, Europe, Europe.

monologic

Sadly, very sadly, I hate it, but they had a big outbreak that caused a stir in the market today. We launched the most ambitious vaccine program ever created. And we will deliver a vaccine before the end of the year, but it could be a lot sooner than that, a lot sooner. The Democrats, they are all saying, We want a vaccine. That is when they thought we could not get it, right? Because if we relied on them, this vaccine would have taken two or three years more because of the FDA, and I have mobilized the FDA, and it is incredible. But it would have taken two or three years more. So when they heard that we were getting the vaccine, they started knocking it. So they put politics over life and death. By the way, we are rounding the corner in any event, but we are going to have a vaccine very soon, is a great vaccine, great, great vaccine. And it is pretty sad when the Democrats try and make that into a political issue. We will end this pandemic in the next year. The third quarter will end just before November 3rd. You will see numbers, the likes of which no country has ever seen. I guess you are going to have to remember that. And if they are good, I hope you are going to remember it too, but they are going to be great. Somebody predicted 25% and then somebody said 35% GDP increase. Nobody's ever heard of a number like that. But that is the kind of thing we are doing. Under my leadership, we built the strongest economy in the history of the world, and now we are doing it again. In the past four months, we have added a record smashing 10.6 million jobs, never been close to that. And you know, as good as the stock market's doing, it is a headwind knowing you have an election. Things happen in elections, some bad things, some stupid things. If we win and when we win the election, you are going to see things roar because that is what people want. That is what the market wants. And that is what the workers want. Biden keeps talking about a nationwide shutdown. My plan is to crush the virus. Biden plan and Biden's really plan is to, and it is not that he wants to crush America, but he will just out of gross incompetence. Biden will surrender to the virus, just like he surrendered to China.

monologic

And just like he surrendered to the radical left, including his own running mate who is running the show. Well, I will tell you something. Elizabeth Warren did do a great number on Bloomberg. I tell you. One question and that was the end of him. How you enjoying politics, Mike? 1.8 billion wiped out in one question. That was the most expensive question in history. To protect our workers during the pandemic, I suspended the entry of new foreign workers who threatened American jobs. You do not mind that, do you folks? As the economy reopens, I want to ensure American workers that we are putting America first and our jobs are put first. Everything is now put first for the USA. And by the way, we are up to mile 330 on the wall. We are setting records on not allowing all of these. When you look at the traffickers. They traffic in women and drugs and other things, but they traffic in women, the drug dealers always. Setting records now on the wall because we have 330 miles. We are averaging 10 miles a week and we will be finished with the wall very soon. And it is had a huge impact. So one of the most radical things that will happen, and there is no way he can get away with this because he was banning fracking for a year. He is running, running, he is banning fracking. And then all of a sudden, now all of sudden he said, Well, I did not really say that. Remember, it is always the first thing they say with a politician. He wants to ban fracking and outlaw Ohio energy production. And you are a big energy producer, whether you know it or not. So he is going to ban fracking. And even if he did not want to, the whole radical left, their plan is to ban fracking. They want to ban fracking. They do not want any fossil fuels. Just a few days ago, Biden reiterated his plan to require net zero carbon emissions. So you do that. This requirement would end all investment in fracking and it would just shut down everything. Our country, do you see the rolling blackouts they have in California? I do not think we want too many of them in Ohio. Would anybody like a few rolling blackouts? Like we'd like to watch president Trump tonight. I am sorry, darling, but we have no energy. We have no energy. We are going to get it from the wind.

monologic

The wind, the wind has got a wonderful, wonderful energy. The wind, when it is blowing it is just fine for about 20% of the time. By ending fracking, Biden would destroy 700,000 to a million Ohio jobs and your energy prices would go through the roof. When Biden was Vice President, they deliberately killed 40% of all coal mining jobs and the rest were coming fast. I saved it. I put our miners back to work, clean coal. I call it clean coal. And while I am President, America will remain the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world and Ohio workers will continue leading the way. And that is what we are doing. And just in concluding, over the next four years, we will build America into the manufacturing, super power of the world. And we will end our reliance on China and all other faraway lands that nobody in this beautiful facility, whatever the hell you make here, I do not know, but it looks good to me. But nobody ever heard of it. You have lands that would go to that nobody ever even heard of. Where are you sending this money? We are sending it to such and such a country. I never heard of it. We will make our medical supplies right here in the United States. We will cut your taxes and taxes for middle class families at a level never seen before. You know, we gave you the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. We gave you the biggest regulation cut in the history of our country. And we are going to give you additional regulation cuts. That is one of the reasons you had the jobs. You know, in many ways, the regulation cutting was perhaps as important or more important. And we are going to expand opportunity zones to ensure that no community is left behind. And they have been a tremendous success, especially for the African American, Hispanic community. We worked hard on it. We will enforce immigration rules that defend American families, raise American wages, and always put the interests of American workers first. We will enact fair trade deals that ensure more products are proudly stamped with that beautiful phrase Made in the USA, right? In God We trust. And they took the word God out of the Pledge of Allegiance. You saw that. I was listening to this Pledge of Allegiance and I said, That is strange. They must've made a mistake.

monologic

And then it was getting ready to happen a third time, and somebody heard that the public was enraged, including me by the way. And by the way, we want the NFL to stand and put their hand on their heart. I thought we taught them that lesson about two years ago. The commissioner tried it again. People are angry about it. People love our country. You love our country. You love our flag. You love our anthem. This November, if you want jobs, if you want opportunity, if you want safety, and if you want a President who defends the dreams of workers in Dayton and Akron and all across Ohio in America, then you need to get out and vote for Trump, Mike Pence. And I love Mike, but it is not Pence Trump, okay? You know, when he said that the other day. He said the Harris Biden administration. And Mike called me up. He said, You never have to do that. Mike Pence has done a great job. I will tell you. This was a group of people, workers, and this is what it was told to me as, and we had a lot of fun and we have a lot of fun, but it is very serious business. November 3rd and before, depending on whether or not you have those fake ballots or whatever. I mean, that thing is going to be one of the great catastrophes. When they have small races, they cannot account. People steal the ballots. People do not get the ballots. They do not send them to a Republican area or maybe a Democrat area, whatever, it is still wrong. But they do not send them out. Then they harvest them, which they are not allowed to do. They have in Nevada, the Governor said he signed an order that they do not have to sign. We need no signature verification. Because they could not get people to sign, so they said, We will just send them in. This is a real affront to our democracy. And the Democrats know it and they say, Well, he is not for our great heritage. He is fighting our vote. No I am not fighting our vote. You have ballots that you go out and you can get, you could request as you know, you can request them and that is fine. But if you are not requesting them, when you get millions of ballots, 80 million they say all over the United States, where the hell are they going? Who is sending them?

monologic

My arm still hurts from the last time or one of the last times I came to St. Louis. I tried to fire a 90-mile-an-hour fastball on opening day got up there about 60, maybe. But I love coming to your town. Those of you who have traveled I want to thank those of you who traveled from outside this great city of St. Louis to come to support Talent. The Show Me State my attitude is, show me a good Senator, and I am going to back him. And we have got a great Senator in Jim Talent. I appreciate his spirit. I appreciate his working with the White House. He is an independent enough guy to tell us if we are not doing right. Tough, principled, unwilling to yield when he stands for when he believes he is correct. Every time I am with him, he is always talking about the citizens of Missouri. I say, What about Texas? So I am proud to stand here with him. And I think the people of Missouri will be wise to send this good man back to the United States Senate. It is good to meet your mother-in-law. It is a smart thing to bring the mother-in-law through the photo op line. I was also thrilled to meet Michael and Kate and Chrissy, Jim and Brenda's children. See, what is important to the Talents is putting their family first. That is what I like about Jim Talent. He is got his priorities absolutely straigh faith, family, and the United States of America. And Laura sends her love to all our friends here in Missouri. I was proud of her trip recently to the Middle East. She is sending a strong message as part of the freedom movement, and that is, you cannot be free unless women have a free role in society. But more importantly, she is a wonderful mother, wonderful wife, and a great First Lady for the United States. And I want to thank the senior Senator. That is appropriate to call you senior, but you are a little older than Talent, at least. Kit Bond has served this State with great distinction for a long time. And I am proud of your Governor. It still amazes me that you are old enough to meet the age requirement. He is the youngest looking Governor in America. And I appreciate your leadership in the statehouse, Matt. And the Lieutenant Governor is with us, Pete Kinder.

monologic

I have known Pete a long time, and I appreciate your serving, Pete, and joining Matt and making this State be all that it can be. I want to thank Congressman Kenny Hulshof as well, and his wife, Renee. Kenny is a bright star in the House of Representatives from the great State of Missouri. I love talking to Kenny. Every time I see him he says soybeans. I thank Mike Gibbons and his wife, Liz. I want to thank Rod Jetton, the speaker of the statehouse, and his wife, Cassie. I want to thank all of you all who serve. Somebody told me they thought Ambassador Danforth would be here tonight. I do want to say that he represented our country so well. I asked Jack Danforth from the State of Missouri to help resolve the Sudan civil war, the conflict between north and south. And unfortunately, Darfur has obscured the great progress that Ambassador Danforth made on behalf of peace. And when it is all said and done, Jack, your contribution to helping solve that problem will go down in history as one of the great humanitarian gestures by our country, led ably by you. I want to thank all the folks who helped put on this fundraiser. It is an incredibly successful evening and which speaks not only to your hard work but also to the admiration that your Senator has earned by the people of Missouri. We have got a lot to do in Washington. One of the things I like about Talent is he understands that our job in Washington is to confront problems, not pass them on to future Congresses. That is what the American people expect from those of us who have been elected. And we have got some problems we got to solve. Now, we dealt with one of our problems, and that is our economy. We had some tough times for a while because of the enemy attack and the down cycle of our economy. I do not know if you know this or not, but in the last 2 years, we have added over 3.5 million new jobs. More Americans are working today in our country than in the Nation's history. And I appreciate the fact that Jim understands we cannot rest, that the job of Government is not to create the wealth but an environment in which people are willing to risk capital, an environment in which there is a reasonable chance for America to stay competitive in the world. And one way to do that is to make sure we finally get an energy policy out of the United States Congress.

monologic

When I first got to Washington, I recognized that our country was too dependent on foreign sources of energy. And so I went to the Congress and said, Here is a strategy that will encourage more conservation, a strategy that will use research and development dollars to make it more likely we will have more renewable sources of energy, a strategy that says we can explore for oil and gas in environmentally friendly ways in America, a strategy that recognizes we need to use nuclear power, a strategy we need clean coal technology, a strategy that says we can use soybeans to refine biodiesel They got it out of the House, and thanks to Jim Talent's leadership and Kit Bond's leadership, they are going to get a good bill off the Senate floor. I am going to sign a bill. For the sake of national security and for the sake of economic security, Congress needs to get me a good energy bill by the recess, by the summer recess break this year. Smart policy will enable us to grow out of our hydrocarbon society, which we are going to have to do. I went to a refinery in Virginia the other day it is an unusual kind of refinery; it is a refinery that refines biodiesel and saw a new C.A.T. engine that can burn 100 percent biodiesel with no exhaust. See, technology is going to enable us to diversify away from our old habits, which will be good for our country, good for our economy. And the United States Congress can help that diversification process through wise policy. Jim Talent understands that, and I am going to keep pushing hard to make sure the rest of the United States Senators understand that. I appreciate the fact that we passed a good, tough budget out of the United States Senate. I hope you appreciate that as well. We have got to show the people of this country that we can be wise about how we spend your money. Notice I did not say the Government's money how we spend your taxpayers' money. And so I said to them, Here is a way to cut our deficit in half, meet our priorities, but it requires fiscal discipline. And I want to thank Jim Talent for his understanding that you cannot be all things to all people when it comes time to spending the taxpayers' money. You have to set priorities. You have to have goals, and you must show fiscal discipline. We passed a good budget.

monologic

I am looking forward to working with this good Senator to make sure the appropriation process stays stuck to the budget. I am also working on Social Security for a reason. The reason is, is that there is a huge problem looming for a younger set of Americans. I just came from Hopkinsville, Kentucky Hopkington, Kentucky, and I told the people there what I have been telling folks all across the country, that if you get your check, you have nothing to worry about. I mean, the Social Security system is just fine for people receiving their check. But because baby boomers like me are getting ready to retire see, my retirement age shows up at 2008 which is a convenient year. But the problem for younger workers is there is more than just me retiring. As a matter of fact, about 73 million of us are set to retire. And I do not know about the rest of you baby boomers here, but I plan on living longer than the previous generation. As a matter of fact, I am trying to exercise on a daily basis so that I do live longer. And not only that, but we have been promised greater benefits than the previous generation. So you have got a lot of baby boomers living longer, getting greater benefits, with fewer people paying into the system. In 1950 I do not know if you know this or not but 16 workers paid for every retiree. So we have got a problem, folks. It is not a problem for people who receive their check. It is a problem for people coming up. It is a problem not for the grandparents but the grandchildren. And so I think now it is time to do something about it, and so does Jim Talent. And I have laid out some proposals. One of them is, why do not we just slow down the growth rate of benefits for some of the wealthier citizens. Their benefits will grow but not as quite as fast as Congress of the past thought they ought to grow. It is called progressive indexing, which, by the way, will get most of the problem solved. I also think younger workers ought to be allowed to take some of their own payroll tax and set up in a voluntary personal savings account. Right now the Government gets a whopping 1.8 percent on your money when we hold it in the payroll tax. With a conservative mix of bonds and stocks, you can get at least 4 1/2 percent.

monologic

You compound that difference over time, somebody is going to have a pretty sizable nest egg they can call their own. The reason I like Jim Talent is because he wants to promote an ownership society in America. He and I reject this business about the investor class only pertains to a certain group of people. We believe everybody in this country ought to own assets. We believe everybody ought to have the ability to pass on their assets to whomever they choose. We know that when you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of the United States of America. Now is the time to not only fix Social Security for generations to come but to make Social Security a better deal for all Americans. And when we get that done, we are going to reform the Tax Code. I put together a group of Democrats and Republicans to make some recommendations. I know I will have a strong ally in Jim Talent in making sure the Tax Code is more fair, is less large, and accomplishes the mission, and that is to collect revenues for our Government in a fair, honest way. Do you realize that I read a report the other day where some person estimated from the IRS that there is about $325 billion a year in people avoiding taxes. And part of it has to do with the complexities of the Tax Code. For the sake of an economy that grows and for the sake of a better America, we have got to reform the Tax Code of the United States, and we will. I have got a good ally in Jim Talent when it comes to legal reform. One sure way to make sure this country is not competitive is to allow these frivolous and junk lawsuits to continue to plague people who are trying to run businesses. We got too many lawsuits in America, plain and simple. I want to congratulate Matt for getting good legal reform out of the legislature. We ought to do the same thing in Washington. We got a good class-action reform bill out, and I want to thank Jim for his work on that. I think we are going to get an asbestos bill out here pretty quick, which would be good news. We need one other bill that is really important. You know, when I went to Washington, I said, Well, most of these legal matters can be solved at the State level, until I began to look at the effect on the Federal budget of these junk and frivolous lawsuits against docs.

monologic

Because of these lawsuits, doctors either get run out of business, or the premiums go up which cost you or the taxpayers more money or they practice defensive medicine in order to stay out of the courts. It is estimated that these lawsuits cost the Federal Government about $28 billion a year. Even for all the money we spend, that is a lot. We want people to have their day in court if they get injured by a lousy doc, but we got to do something about these frivolous lawsuits. I proposed a good piece of legislation that is now stuck in the United States Senate. Jim Talent is a strong backer for medical liability reform at the Federal level, and I want to thank him for his support. I remember when Jim ran for the Senate, he said he would be Missouri's health care Senator, and he has kept that promise. We worked together to strengthen Medicare by giving seniors more choices and by modernizing the system to include a prescription drug benefit. Talent understood what I know what kind of system is it where we pay for surgery from a heart attack but not the medicine to prevent the surgery from being needed in the first place? It was an antiquated, outdated system that needed market incentives in the program and needed to be brought up to date for the sake of our seniors. The Medicare bill that Jim helped pass out of the United States Senate is a good piece of legislation that will mean better quality of life for our seniors in America. And finally, an issue I know is dear to his heart is association health plans. You know, too many small businesses cannot afford health insurance for their employees. And there is a practical way to deal with the problem, and that is to allow small businesses to pool risk across jurisdictional boundaries so they can buy insurance at the same discounts that big companies get to do. It is a sensible approach to helping deal with health care costs. It makes a lot of sense. Talent is the author of that idea on the Senate floor, and I look forward to working with him to get association health care plans past. And I want to thank you for your leadership on that issue. There is a lot of issues that we could be talking about here, and he said, when I got up here, he said, Make sure you keep it relatively short. These people paid a lot of money. I do want to talk about a couple of other things, though.

monologic

Because of Jim Talent's leadership and steadfast support, our party will continue to support faith-based and community groups as a way to help heal hurt in America. You know, I gave a speech the other day at Calvin College, and I talked about Alexis de Tocqueville. He had interesting observations about America in 1832. He talked about the strength of America being in the souls of our citizens and that people were able to find great comfort and solace and strength through civic organizations, voluntary organizations where people come together to help heal the hurts of society. That was true in 1832, and it is darn sure true today in 2005. The strength of this country lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens. And the Federal Government should not fear should not fear the presence of faith to help deal with social problems, as a matter of fact, ought to welcome faith programs and to help deal with social problems. I appreciate Jim's willingness to join me in promoting a culture of life in America. I want to thank Jim for helping defend the institution of marriage from being redefined by activist judges. And speaking about judges I want to thank both Senators from Missouri for understanding that every nominee a President sends up must have a fair hearing in the Judiciary Committee, an expeditious hearing in the Judiciary Committee and then an up-or-down vote on the floor of the United States Senate. I nominated a fantastic woman named Priscilla Owen over 4 years ago to the bench, Fifth Court. She is a fantastic lady, tops in her law school class. In our State, you got to run for Supreme Court, and she ran for Supreme Court, got endorsed by Republicans and Democrats, won something like 80 percent of the State because she is a great judge. For 4 long years her nomination was held up for pure partisan reasons 4 years and finally, as a result of never giving up and being steadfast and strong, she got her vote. I want to thank Senators Talent and Bond for supporting this great woman. We got another confirmation that needs to get done too. It is time for the United States Senate to stop playing pure politics, stall politics, and give John Bolton an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. People look at the Government and say, What is going on with all this filibustering? Why cannot people come together and do what is right for the country? Listen, the United Nations needs reform, and I have got a man who can go up there and reform it.

monologic

And John Bolton needs a vote. People are tired of this. Focus on the people's business; stop playing politics; get something done for the good of the country. And that is the attitude Jim Talent brings to the Senate floor, and I appreciate that a lot. Jim Talent also understands the war on terror goes on. He is a strong, strong supporter of our military, and I want to thank you for that. You know, we have a duty to make sure these troops get the best possible equipment and the best possible training. And we are fulfilling that obligation. You know, our strategy is clear on the war on terror. We are going to find them overseas so we do not have to find them face them here at home. We will defeat them there in order to protect the homeland. The only way to defend America is to stay on the offense against these people, and that is exactly what the United States of America will continue to do. One is through good intelligence and good movement of troops and good work with the allies. And there is another way to stay on the offense against the terrorists, and that is to spread freedom. There is nothing that frightens these ideological killers more than democracy. It scares them a lot. They cannot survive in a democracy. They can survive in places where tyrants have discouraged hope, suppressed people. They cannot survive in an open society. See, they cannot stand the light of freedom. One, we will be tough as heck and stay on the offense, but we will also have great faith in the capacity of freedom to transform hateful societies to hopeful societies, to transform the conditions that create hate to the conditions that create hope. And that is what you are seeing around the world. It is a fantastic period in American history. If you have got young children, I hope you explain to them what they are seeing. It was not all that long ago that those poor people lived under the barbaric clutches of the Taliban. These people were so barbaric that young girls were not even allowed to go to school, and if their mothers dared speak out, they were taken to the public square and whipped. We liberated Afghanistan for our own sake. Remember, Afghanistan was the home of Al Qaida and its training camps. I laid out a doctrine that said, If you harbor a terrorist, you are as guilty as the terrorists.

monologic

And we told the Taliban to get rid of Al Qaida, and they would not do it, and so it is important that when you say something, you mean it. It is important that when you say you are going to do it that you go ahead and do it, for the sake of peace. But as importantly, 25 million people were liberated in Afghanistan. It is fantastic to think about that. I have had a lot of friends go over to Afghanistan, and Karen Hughes was there early on after the liberation, and she went again. I will tell you a great American story. My barber was raised in Afghanistan. And she came over here to there was a revolution or civil war or whatever you want to call it, and she decided to stay in America, raised her three kids here, and used her great talents and enthusiasm for her country to raise money to build two schools. What kind of a country is it where you got a barber to the President working hard, using her influence and her contacts and her friends to raise money quite a bit of money, by the way to build schools in a faraway country, spectacular country that encourages compassion not only at home but abroad. Afghanistan is changing for the better, and as it does, the world will be more peaceful. Listen, we got rid of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a threat to peace. I am sure you were amazed, as was much of the world, at the 8 1/2 million people who defied the car bombers and the killers and the suiciders to say as loud as they possibly can, You will not prevent us from voting and exercising our rights as free citizens. And now we are standing with the Government as they struggle against these suiciders. And our mission is clear there as well, and that is to train the Iraqis so they can do the fighting, make sure they can stand up to defend their freedoms, which they want to do. And then our troops are coming home with the honor they earned. And the world will be better off with a free Iraq and a free Afghanistan in the broader Middle East. Ukraine had a freedom revolution. Lebanon is now having a freedom revolution. Listen, freedom is on the march. And the role of the United States of America is to stand with freedom lovers and reformers and believers in the power of democracy. And when we do so and as we do so, we will leave a foundation of peace behind for our children and grandchildren.

monologic

We congratulate you all. We are delighted that the Chair of the District of Columbia Control Board, Andrew Brimmer, and Councilwoman Charlene Drew Jarvis are here. And I want to thank Secretary Daley in spite of the fact that he was making fun of my penchant for animal stories of all kinds. I mean, I do not come from Chicago--I come from the country. But my wife comes from Chicago. I want to thank Earnie Deavenport, too. Several years ago the Eastman Company loaned me an executive when I was Governor of Arkansas, and we established the first statewide total quality management program in the country. It was what gave me the idea to start what eventually became the reinventing Government project headed by the Vice President, which among other things has now given us the smallest Federal Government since John Kennedy was here. And I will give $5 to anyone in the audience who can honestly say you have missed it. I say that because the Federal employees have done a very good job of increasing their output and the quality of their service while downsizing their numbers so that we can take advantage of technology, get the deficit down, get the economy going again. So we have learned from you. And I have talked with Earnie many times about the importance of trying to apply these lessons to other areas of human endeavor. I also think there are applications-if you look at the success in many law enforcement departments around the country, there are law enforcement applications here because the thing that a belief in continuous progress through not only doing the right things but doing the right things right gives you is the conviction that you can repeat whatever you are doing right in one place somewhere else. So I really am delighted to see you here. But I think, for me, because I have seen this work over and over and over again in the private as well as the public sector, that is what cries out for application to our public institutions, whether it is in education or health care or in law enforcement. If the city of Boston could go virtually 2 1/2 years without a single child being killed by a handgun, until-unfortunately, they had an incident last week, but they went 2 1/2 years. No city in the United States that big has been able to do that.

monologic

It must therefore follow that if other people did the same thing in the same way and then you started the kind of contest you have here in the market system so everybody tried to keep continuously improving their process, that we would become a safer country. In health care, we have all these-you know, managed care, on balance, has been a good thing for America, because we have managed some inefficiency out of the system. But now people are genuinely worried about who is making the decisions about their health care and whether quality will continue to be the most important value in the health care system. I think all of us want it to be; even those of you who may have responsibility in your organization for holding down health care costs, the last thing in the world you want is for your employees not to have access to the health care that they need. And goodness knows, in education-I have said this so many times, the poor people in the press who have to cover me get tired of hearing it, but the most frustrating thing about American education today is that every problem in education has been solved by somebody somewhere, and nobody's figured out how to have everybody else follow suit so that you launch the kind of competitive process that you come here to celebrate today. So, for all these reasons, I love coming here. And I always feel that by the time I get up to speak, there is no point in my saying anything. I told Mrs. Baldrige I kind of hated to walk out here. You all were so enthusiastic, you should have been outside listening to all this energy being emanated from this room. It is wonderful to be in a place where people do not think it is too corny or too embarrassing to be exuberant about what they do. Can you imagine what would happen in this country if everybody wanted to wave a flag for the place they work every day? Can you imagine that? I am sure somewhere in this room there is some cynic saying, This is too hokey. I cannot believe they are doing this. Where do you spend more time than at work? Why should not you want to wave a flag? We want to cheer about our families, cheer about the places we work, cheer about the clubs we associate with. This country would work a lot better if everybody felt like they could cheer about the place they work.

monologic

That is why I always try to make these awards, and why I think it was a stroke of genius to establish them, although I bet even when they were established, the founders could never have imagined what the far-reaching impact would be, that most States would follow suit, that countries would follow suit. There is this idea now embodied in our four winners today, in 3M Dental Products, in Merrill Lynch Credit, in Solectron, and XBS, that you can always get better and that you can organize not only to do the right things but to do the right things right in a way that elevates the people who work for the enterprise, serves the general public better, and obviously supports the bottom line. It is nice to think that. If you get a multiple-choice question like that, it is not too easy to make an A. None of us do all the time. But we come here to celebrate what we can do at our best. I'd also like to thank the Department of Commerce, Secretary Daley, the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the support that they give to this endeavor. But most of all, I just want to say, just think about where this idea was 10 years ago and where it is today. Think about how many of the groundbreaking reforms that have been recognized in Baldrige Award winners in the past that are now just standard industry practice. Think about what it would be like if everybody would so shamelessly try to learn what their competitors are doing and do it at least that well and then figure out how to do it better, if in every area of human endeavor you did that. What do we celebrate? The stake the employees have in the company, the flexibility, the innovation, the creativity, the spirit of enterprise. It has brought America back. When I became President, and even when I was running for President, I saw that the 1980's, while they had been very tough on American business, had also produced a remarkable understanding that was widely shared throughout the country about what had to be done to be internationally competitive. And I always saw a big part of my duty here as just to have Government policies that would reinforce what is right and get out of the way of what is right, so that we could create the conditions and give people the tools so that everybody could do what you are doing. And we have tried to do that.

monologic

I appreciate what Secretary Daley said about the turtle on the fencepost; that is one of the things I always say in the Cabinet meeting. It took us 3 months, and we did not have to translate all my aphorisms to people who never had the privilege of living in rural areas. We have tried to do three simple things to help you. One, get the deficit down and balance the budget so that we could keep interest rates down, improve interest rates not only for businesses but for individuals and on home mortgages, and two consequences of that are that we have an all-time high rate of homeownership-it is above two-thirds for the first time in the history of America-and we have record levels of business investment, which is becoming very important now because we are able to sustain a little higher rate of internal growth as you see a little turmoil around the world. I want to say a little more about that in a minute. When the Congress adopted the balanced budget amendment-I mean act-in 1997, back in August, and I signed it, the deficit had already dropped by 92 percent below its high in 1992. It went from $292 billion a year down to $23 billion a year. And I want to make a point about that, because I am sure you found this in your company. When you get this award, you can come here and celebrate, and you do not even have to think about how hard and often controversial some of the changes you had to make were to get to this point. Well, when we decided we were going to bring the deficit down, it was like pulling fingernails out around this place. And the bill in 1993 passed by one vote in both Houses. Now all of us think we are geniuses. If it had gone wrong, half the people that live in town could have said, I told you they were fools. And now we are going to balance this budget, and we are going to have a healthier economy. And that is very important because it frees you to do what you do best. The second thing we have tried to do is to change the conditions in which you operate by opening more of the global economy to American companies. We have had over 200 trade agreements in the last 5 years, by far the largest number ever. And the Uruguay round, finished back in 1993, amounts to the largest tax cut on American goods in history. And now we are the number one exporter in the world again.

monologic

I think it is very important that we continue to press ahead in that. I believe very strongly that it was a mistake when we were unable to get enough votes in the House of Representatives to renew the President's fast-track trade authority to negotiate comprehensive bills. Not because nobody ever loses in trade in America. But most of the job loss in America comes from technological change and old-fashioned business failure. Some of it does come from change in the trading rules. What is the answer to that? You can either say, Well, we are just not going to change any more rules and try to pretend that we will not be subject to these global forces, or you could say, We are going to change the rules, create more jobs, raise more incomes, and do a heck of a lot better job than we have been doing in the past with the people who are dislocated through no fault of their own. We have 4 percent of the world's people and 20 percent of the world's income. And the developing economies are growing at roughly 3 times the rate of the advanced economies like the United States, Japan, and Europe. Now again, you do not have to be a mathematical genius to figure out if you have 4 percent of the people and you have got 20 percent of the income and you would like to stay roughly as well off as you are and maybe, if you are very clever, get a little better off, you have to sell something to the other 96 percent of the people in the world, especially if their growth rates are faster than yours. Now, that does not mean that we should forget about the people who are dislocated from trade or from technology or even from old-fashioned business failures-people who have to start again. That brings me to the third thing that I want to say, which is that in addition to balancing the budget and having sensible economic policies, having an aggressive trade policy, we must have a policy that invests in our people and recognizes that in every company here rewarded, you were rewarded in part because you recognized that by far the most important resources you had were the people who were working for the company. With all respect, nobody was up here waving a flag for the Xerox machine back home- -you know, or the whatever. Whatever the widget is, nobody was doing that.

monologic

You are waving the flags for yourselves and your colleagues that are here because you know that basically creativity and continuous improvement requires people who can think and then who are free to act along the lines that they think and work out things together. The very intellectual processes that you are trying to make permanent and embed in the daily work of your companies require a level of thinking and reasoning skills that mean that we have to be committed in America to universal excellence in education. Now, not everybody needs a college degree in physics. But everybody needs more than a high school diploma today, and everybody needs the ability to keep on learning for a lifetime. That is why we have tried to say-implement the national education goals and to oversimplify it by saying every 8-year-old should be able to read, every 12-year-old should be able to log on to the Internet, every 18-year-old should be able to go to college, every adult should be able to keep on learning for a lifetime. And we are trying to set up a system where that will be true for every American, because it will help more companies to do what you have done. In this last balanced budget, I think 30 years from now when people look back on it, they will say, Aside from the fact that we balanced the budget for the first time in a generation, the most important thing about that bill was it opened the doors of college to every American who would work for a college education, with a tax credit called the HOPE scholarship that virtually makes the first 2 years of college virtually tax-free to every American and other tax incentives and more Pell grants. That is very important that we are setting the stage for promoting a comprehensive reform of America's schools, kindergarten through 12th grade, based on national standards and accountability for them and real production so that all schools will be organized for performance for all the children. And I want to compliment Secretary Daley's brother on the remarkable work that has been done in Chicago to try to totally change the culture of education there to make it more like a continuous quality operation, systematically in the way that all of you have achieved. So we are trying to do that. And as I said, we also have to do that for people who lose their jobs or who are drastically underemployed. What else do we have to do? We want to set up-we have doubled funds for dislocated workers in the last 5 years to invest in their training.

monologic

I'd like to see us consolidate all these Government programs and give the workers a skills grant. Most people who are out of work have got enough sense to figure out what they could learn to get a better job or to get a new job. And I'd like to see anybody that qualifies just get a skills grant that they can take to the nearest educational institution of their own choosing and get the education they need to become a productive member of society and have a great chance to get a good job in an organization like the ones we honor today. I'd like to see us, when a community is hard hit by a big plant closing, go in there like we did when the military bases closed. People are out of work, and you have great capacity. They deserve a chance to have everybody work together to get them started again. So we need to do more on that. But that is the right answer, not to run away from the global economy, not to say we are not going to trade. The right answer is to do more, more quickly for the people that are dislocated. I guess what I am saying is, we are still trying to get it right here. The objective is to give every American the chance to live up to their God-given capacity and live out their dreams. The objective is to give people the power they need to not only have successful careers but to build strong families and strong communities. The objective is to help people balance the demands of work and family, a problem that I hear in every place I go. The objective is to help our country balance our obligation to grow the economy and preserve the environment, something we have proved, repeatedly, we can do over the last 30 years. The objective is to reach out to the rest of the world and get the benefits of the global economy while meeting its challenges instead of pretending they do not exist. We are, whether we like it or not, all interconnected, one with another, in this country and, increasingly, beyond our borders. I have spent an enormous amount of time in the last month-enormous-trying to help come to grips with the financial difficulties you are reading about every day in the Asian markets. Because a huge percentage of our exports go to Asia. They are our neighbors now for all practical purposes.

monologic

And it is in our interest that those countries be able to be stable, growing, increasingly healthy countries from which we not only buy but to which we sell, countries that together we can build a stable future. Instead of have a part of the world in the 20th century that called Americans there to fight and die in three wars, better to be a part of the world that participates in- -three new stages of the global economic revolution in the 21st century. We still have a lot of challenges out there. It bothers me some of the things little kids can see on the Internet at night. It bothers me that people who know how to do it can figure out how to build bombs and have access to dangerous weapons just by having the technological availability of it. There are a lot of things that bother us about it. There are troubling questions of our competitive laws and how they should apply to new technologies that have to be worked out. That is why we all have to be committed to the idea that we can continuously improve. Or in the language that was quoted from David Kearns, that our endeavor is a journey without an end. That is frustrating to some people; they always want to get there. But, you know, the older I get, the more I like the journey. So I thank you. I thank you for making America a better place. I thank you for your enthusiasm and for being a model for other American workplaces. And I ask you when you go home to share with your friends and neighbors, who may not work with you, the idea that this country is like where you work. America is still around after 220 years because we have a Constitution which said, if you want the country to always get better, you have to make it possible for people to always get better. And you have to give them the freedom to fail and mess up. I mean, that is what the Bill of Rights is all about. That is what the Constitution is all about, limiting the powers of Government and mandating, in effect, partnerships. That is what the flexibility of the Constitution is all about, so we could change over time to adapt to new circumstances without giving up our values. That is the kind of country you live in. And if it is going to be everything it ought to be in the 21st century, it has to do, as a nation, what you are trying to do every day at work.

monologic

Twenty-six days ago the people of Los Angeles suffered a devastating earthquake. Sixty-one people died; thousands of homes were destroyed; thousands of people were hospitalized. Highways were broken and twisted by the violent movement of the earth. Because of the extent of the damage, I have just approved $8.6 billion in emergency disaster assistance for the people of California to help them rebuild roads and other public structures, to fix gas lines, provide small business loans, and help pay the expenses of people who have lost their homes. Many have lost everything. With $900 million in aid already on the way, the total payment nears $10 billion, the largest Federal disaster assistance ever. Our country's mission, as it is after every national disaster, is to help our people recover from this tragedy and to get on with the business of everyday life. Across much of our country, everyday life has been interrupted by heavy snow and harsh winter cold. So please take care of yourselves and your neighbors who may need help. When we respond to others in need, we show that bad weather or earthquakes or floods can bring out, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, the better angels of our nature. By the way, Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky 185 years ago today. He became President just as our country was coming apart, and he lived in the White House during the 4 most troubled years in American history. From here he appealed to the best in the American people when they were going through their worst. Here his hand trembled as he set his pen to the proclamation that declared slaves thenceforth and forever free. In freeing the slaves, Lincoln freed America. A war to preserve the Union as it was became a struggle to redeem the promise of our Declaration of Independence, which holds that all men are created equal. Lincoln went to Gettysburg, the bloodiest battlefield on our continent, to dedicate a cemetery for the war dead. There he asked America to resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth. We call Lincoln the Great Emancipator, but we might also call him the Great Conciliator because no person in our history ever did more to bring us together, this vast nation of great diversity, of many political and religious beliefs and all its ethnic backgrounds.

monologic

As the Civil War neared its close, many of the victors approached the vanquished with pride and with punishment. But Lincoln called for humility and forgiveness. His second Inaugural Address contained none of the bitterness toward others, none of the petty partisan attacks that had grown so frequent in those days. With malice toward none; with charity for all, he said, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up that Nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. At that moment, it was as if Lincoln had stretched out his long arms to gather up the people from every region and every corner of the country to make our Nation whole, to shepherd it beyond the war and move it forward. Only one month later, he was gone, his life taken on Good Friday, 1865. Lincoln's legacy has touched us all down through the ages. Few now remember that he signed the homestead law giving 160 acres of land to pioneer families in search of better lives. A son of a frontier family himself, he signed a law to create land-grant colleges, which have educated America's sons and daughters ever since. Lincoln's work allowed people from ordinary backgrounds like his own to rise in life and accomplish extraordinary things. Our job here is to build up and strengthen the great American middle class, to give opportunity to all, to help our communities rid themselves from crime and drugs, to help families protect themselves from bankruptcy due to spiraling health care costs, to move people away from lifetime welfare toward full-time work, and to allow everyone who works hard to get ahead and compete and win in the new global economy. Still the question recurs, can we do better?- just as Lincoln asked us when he said, The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history, he said. We... will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us.... We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility....

monologic

It is nice to have dinner with a group of friends. This is a very important dinner because, through your generosity, we are going to keep control of the Senate and the House, and America will be better off for it. She sends her love. Generally when I say that, people groan, and I take it to mean they wish she'd have come and not me. I understand that. I will tell you something about Laura. She is a heck of a First Lady and a great wife and mom. I love her dearly. I want to thank Senator Lamar Alexander for his leadership on this incredibly successful dinner. I appreciate Speaker Denny Hastert. He is a great Speaker of the House. And through your generosity, he is going to stay Speaker of the House. I want to thank the majority leader of the United States Senate, Bill Frist. He too is a great leader, and I appreciate calling him friend. I want to thank Senator Elizabeth Dole, who is the NRSC chairman; CongressmanTom Reynolds, the NRCC chairman. Those are initials for, like, let us raise money and get the Senate in Republican keep the Senate in Republican hands and House in Republican hands. I want to thank the Members of the Senate and Congress for working so hard. I want to thank the Members of the all the Members of the Congress who've joined us tonight. I appreciate the members of my Cabinet who are here. I want to pay special tribute to the Republican National Committee chairman, Ken Mehlman, for the fantastic job he is doing on reaching out to people from all walks of life. I want to thank the President's Dinner leadership, especially Ken Thompson and his wife, Kathylee, for the fantastic job you all have done and everybody up here has done. I want to thank the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Show Choir for being here today. I am proud to be the head of a party that has a positive and hopeful and optimistic vision for every single person who lives in this country. And I am proud to be a head of a party that is driving the debate on all the key domestic and foreign policy issues. Because of our achievements, the American people see us as the party of reform and optimism and results, the party that is moving this Nation forward. All of us in Washington have a duty to the people who sent us here. Political parties can take one of two approaches.

monologic

One approach is to lead, to focus on the people's business, to take on the tough problems. And that is exactly what our party's done. The other approach is to simply do nothing, to delay solutions, obstruct progress, refuse to take responsibility. Members of the other party have worked with us to achieve important reforms on some issues. Yet too often, their leadership prefers to block the ideas of others. We hear no to Social Security reform. We hear no to confirming Federal judges. We hear no to a highly qualified U.N. Ambassador. We hear no to medical liability reform. On issue after issue, they stand for nothing except obstruction, and this is not leadership. It is the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the roadblock, and our country and our children deserve better. Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people. If leaders of the other party have innovative ideas, let us hear them. But if they have no ideas or policies except obstruction, they should step aside and let others lead. Because we acted to pass the largest tax relief in a generation, our economy is growing again. We have created more than 3.5 million new jobs during the last 2 years. More Americans are working today than ever before in our Nation's history. To keep this economy growing and creating jobs, we need to make the tax relief permanent. We need to get rid of the death tax forever. And we can do something else about taxes. I have appointed a bipartisan panel to examine our incoherent, out-of-date Tax Code. When their recommendations are delivered, I am looking forward to working with the United States Congress to give this Nation a Tax Code that is progrowth, easy to understand, and fair to all. Our party is the party of economic growth, and our party is the party of spending restraint. I have submitted the first budget to actually cut nonsecurity discretionary spending since Ronald Reagan was the President. Now the Congress needs to act to hold nondiscretionary spending below last year's level. The budget we submitted adheres to an interesting principle. We need to have a fiscally responsible highway bill that modernizes our roads and bridges and improves safety and creates jobs. We are on our way to cutting this deficit in half in 5 years, and I want to thank the Members of Congress for holding the line and doing what is right for the American taxpayer.

monologic

In order to make sure this economy grows, we need an energy bill. Four years ago, I presented Congress with a comprehensive energy strategy that encourages conservation, renewable sources of energy like ethanol and biodiesel, that says we can use nuclear energy in a clean way, that recognizes the need to spend money on clean coal technology. It is an energy plan that will make us less dependent on foreign sources of energy. For the sake of national security and for the sake of economic security, Congress needs to get a bill to my desk before the August recess. We are proudly the party of free and fair trade. During my administration and thanks to the good works of Congress, we have opened up markets for millions of consumers of U.S. products. And now we have an opportunity to continue to open up new markets with CAFTA, the Central American and Dominican Republic Free Trade act. Right now most of the goods coming from the Central American countries enter into our country duty-free. Yet our goods are not received in their countries duty-free. For the sake of free trade, for the sake of fair trade, for the sake of good jobs, for the sake of promoting young democracies in Central America, Congress must pass CAFTA. Ours is the party of the entrepreneur and small business. Ours is the party of litigation reform. We are the party that continues to free our entrepreneurs from needless regulations and protect honest job creators from junk lawsuits. I applaud the Speaker and the leader for getting bipartisan class-action reform and bankruptcy reform through the Congress. Now we need asbestos litigation reform. And to stop junk lawsuits that are running good doctors out of practice and running up the cost of medicine, we need Federal medical liability reform. Ours is the party that challenges the soft bigotry of low expectations, that worked to stop the practice of just shuffling kids through school, grade after grade, without them being able to read and write. Ours is the party that set high standards, believes in local control of schools, and insists that every child learn to read and write, so no child is left behind in America. We set a clear agenda to make health care more affordable and to give American families greater access to coverage and more control over their health decisions. In 2003, we strengthened Medicare by giving seniors more choices and adding a prescription drug benefit.

monologic

We have kept our commitment to our Nation's seniors, and now we must move forward with more community health centers to help the poor, improved health information technology, expanded health savings accounts and association health plans, so that small businesses can pool risk and buy insurance at the same discount that big companies are able to do. Ours is the party that set the goal to encourage ownership in America. We want more people owning their own business. I am proud to report more people own a home than ever before in our Nation's history, and more minority families are owning a home today than ever before. We need to expand ownership to our retirement system. Recently, I have been spending time talking about an important issue, and that is Social Security reform. And the reason I have is because I believe the job of the President is to confront problems and not pass them on to future Presidents and future generations. We have got a problem when it comes to Social Security. No, you do not have a problem if you are getting your check now or if you were born prior to 1950. You will get your check. The problem is for a younger generation of Americans who are paying payroll taxes or getting ready to pay payroll taxes into a system that is going broke. Let me give you the math right quick, let you know why I am talking about it all across the country. As a matter of fact, my retirement age is 2008 quite convenient. And we are living longer, and we have been promised greater benefits by Congress. And the real problem is there is fewer people paying into the system. In 2017, the system goes into the red. In 2027, it is $200 billion short. In 2041, it is bankrupt. It is not right to sit here in Washington, DC, knowing the system is going bankrupt for younger Americans and not do anything about it. So I am going to keep talking about it and keep putting ideas out. I have laid out some plans that would nearly fix all of the Social Security problem.

monologic