Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents

Monday, February 20, 2006 Volume 42—Number 7 Pages 231–281

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Addresses and Remarks Communications to Congress—Continued See also Meetings With Foreign Leaders Supplemental appropriations for ongoing Florida, war on terror and a question-and- military and intelligence operations and answer session in Tampa—262 selected other international activities, letter transmitting—261 Health care initiatives, discussion—252 Interviews With the News Media National Medals of Science and Technology, presentation—232 Exchange with reporters in the Oval Office— NCAA football champions, University of Texas 259 at Austin—237 Meetings With Foreign Leaders Ohio, health care in Dublin—239 Colombia, President Uribe—259 Radio address—231 United Nations, Secretary-General Annan— World Series champion Chicago White Sox— 234 235 Statements by the President Anniversary of the death of former Prime Communications to Congress Minister Rafiq Hariri of Lebanon—239 Supplementary Materials Gulf coast, letter transmitting request for Acts approved by the President—281 additional funds to support recovery Checklist of White House press releases—280 efforts—262 Digest of other White House National Science Board, message transmitting announcements—278 report—239 Nominations submitted to the Senate—279

Editor’s Note: The President was in Lake Buena Vista, FL, on February 17, the closing date of this issue. Releases and announcements issued by the Office of the Press Secretary but not received in time for inclusion in this issue will be printed next week.

WEEKLY COMPILATION OF Distribution is made only by the Superintendent of Docu- ments, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents will be furnished by mail to domestic subscribers for $80.00 per year Published every Monday by the Office of the Federal Reg- ($137.00 for mailing first class) and to foreign subscribers for ister, National Archives and Records Administration, Washing- $93.75 per year, payable to the Superintendent of Documents, ton, DC 20408, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Docu- Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. The ments contains statements, messages, and other Presidential charge for a single copy is $3.00 ($3.75 for foreign mailing). materials released by the White House during the preceding The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is also week. available on the Internet on the GPO Access service at http:// The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is pub- www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/index.html. lished pursuant to the authority contained in the Federal Reg- There are no restrictions on the republication of material ister Act (49 Stat. 500, as amended; 44 U.S.C. Ch. 15), under appearing in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Docu- regulations prescribed by the Administrative Committee of the ments. Federal Register, approved by the President (37 FR 23607; 1 CFR Part 10).

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The President’s Radio Address ferent plans that fit Dorothy’s needs. Doro- February 11, 2006 thy chose the least-expensive plan, and now, instead of paying $300 a month, she will pay Good morning. Today I want to talk to you about $36 a month for her medicines. As a about the new Medicare prescription drug result, Dorothy will save more than $3,000 coverage that went into effect on January 1st this year. of this year. For Dorothy and for the vast majority of When I came into office, I found a Medi- our seniors, the new prescription drug pro- care system that was antiquated and not gram is working well. Still, when you make meeting the needs of America’s seniors. The a big change in a program involving millions system would pay tens of thousands of dollars of people, there are bound to be some chal- for a surgery but not a few hundred dollars lenges, and this has been the case with the for the prescription drugs that could have new drug coverage. Some people had trouble prevented the surgery in the first place. So the first time they went to the pharmacy after working with Congress, we passed critical enrolling. Information for some beneficiaries legislation that modernizes Medicare, pro- was not transferred smoothly between Medi- vides seniors with more choices, and gives care, drug plans, and the States. And in the seniors better access to the prescription early days of the drug coverage, waiting times drugs they need. were far too long for many customers and Since the program went into effect 6 pharmacists who called Medicare or their weeks ago, more than 24 million people with drug plans to seek help. Medicare now have prescription drug cov- Secretary of Health and Human Services erage, and hundreds of thousands more are Mike Leavitt has traveled to 18 States in the enrolling each week. The competition in the past 3 weeks to meet with Governors and prescription drug market has been stronger make sure the prescription drug program is than expected and is lowering costs for tax- working for everyone, and we’re making good payers and seniors alike. This year, the Fed- progress. We’re ensuring that drug plans eral Government will spend 20 percent less have more up-to-date information on their overall on the Medicare drug benefit than beneficiaries, and we’re improving data-shar- projected just last July. The average premium ing among Medicare, health plans, and the that seniors pay is a third less than had been States. We have also extended the transition expected—just $25 per month instead of $37 period from 30 days to 90 days, to guarantee per month. And the typical senior will end that seniors do not go without the medicine up spending about half of what they used they need as they switch to a new drug plan. to spend on prescription drugs each year. We have also acted to ensure that phone calls Last month in Oklahoma City, a senior to the Medicare help line are now answered named Dorothy Brown signed up for Medi- with little or no waiting time, and we’re work- care prescription drug coverage. Dorothy has ing with insurers to help them do the same six prescriptions, and previously she paid on their phone lines. about $300 a month for her medicines. A Despite early challenges, the results so far Medicare enrollment counselor at a shopping are clear: The new Medicare prescription mall helped Dorothy log on to the Medicare drug plan is a good deal for seniors. If you’re web site, where she typed the information a Medicare recipient and have not yet signed on Dorothy’s Medicare card and listed up for prescription drug coverage, I encour- Dorothy’s prescriptions. When the counselor age you to review your options and choose was finished, the computer showed five dif- the plan that is right for you. Americans who 231

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have parents on Medicare should encourage Director of the National Science Foundation, and help them to sign up. Citizen groups, who is with us, Dr. Kathie Olsen, the Deputy faith-based organizations, health profes- Director of the National Science Foundation. sionals, and pharmacies across America are I want to thank the representatives from the working to help answer questions. Seniors National Science Foundation and members can also get information 24 hours a day by of the board of the National Science and calling 1–800–MEDICARE or by visiting the Technology Medals Foundation. Those were official Medicare web site at medicare.gov. the folks who decided that you won. [Laugh- Prescription drug coverage under Medi- ter] care has been available for just a few weeks, I thank Dr. Bill Jeffrey who is with us, but its benefits will last for decades to come. Director of the National Institute of Stand- I was proud to sign this Medicare reform into ards and Technology. I want to thank the law. And because we acted, millions of Amer- previous recipients of the National Medals ican seniors are now saving money, getting of Science and Technology who’ve joined us. the life-saving drugs they need, and receiving I thank my friends Congressman Sherry the modern health care they deserve. Boehlert, as well as Dave Reichert from the Thank you for listening. United States Congress for being here. Thank you both for coming. Most of all, NOTE: The address was recorded at 7:10 a.m. on thank you all for joining us. February 10 in the Cabinet Room at the White The medals I’m about to present are the House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on February highest award a President can bestow for as- 11. The transcript was made available by the Of- tounding achievement in science and tech- fice of the Press Secretary on February 10 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. nology. They recognize work that has helped The Office of the Press Secretary also released expand the horizons of human knowledge. a Spanish language transcript of this address. The National Medal of Science honors those whose research has enhanced our under- standing of life and the world around us. And Remarks on Presenting the National the National Medal of Technology recognizes Medals of Science and Technology innovators whose work keeps America on the February 13, 2006 cutting edge with discoveries that change the way we live. Thanks and welcome to the White House. The spirit of discovery is one of our na- It is an honor to be in the company of so tional strengths. Our greatest resource has many bright and distinguished Americans. always been the educated, hard-working, am- Each of our honorees has been blessed with bitious people who call this country their talent, and each has used their talent to the home. From Thomas Edison’s light bulb to fullest. Robert Ledley’s CAT scan machine, most of The work we honor today has improved America’s revolutionary inventions began the lives of people everywhere. It has helped with men and women with the vision to see to move our economy forward, and it’s beyond what is and the desire to pursue what helped to make sure that America is the lead- might be. er of innovation in our world. The medals Think back to how much this country has are our Nation’s way of expressing gratitude changed since the—since we first created the to gifted and visionary citizens. I also appre- National Medal of Technology in 1980. ciate the family members and friends who Twenty-five years ago, most Americans used are here as well. typewriters instead of computers. Most of us I want to thank members of my Cabinet used pay phones instead of cell phones. Most who have joined us, Secretary Gutierrez, of us used carbon paper instead of laser Secretary Bodman. I want to thank Dr. Jack printers. Most of us had rolodexes—you Marburger, who is the Director of the Office might remember those—[laughter]. And on of Science and Technology Policy. I thank the long family trip, we’d play the license David Sampson from Commerce for joining plate game—[laughter]—and now we’re us. I want to thank Dr. Arden Bement, the watching DVDs.

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Many technologies that are in our labora- science. The facts also are these, that we’re tories today will bring cures and technologies falling off the face of the charts when it that are beyond our imagination. And we will comes to eighth grade math, and we’ve got then wonder how we ever lived without to change that. And one of the sure ways them. These kinds of changes are the result to change that is to apply special money for of years of hard work by American kids who need extra help in junior high for innovators, like those we honor here today. math and science. Over the years, National Science and We can’t make sure our children have got Technology laureates have been responsible math and science—fine math and science for breakthroughs that revolutionized tele- courses unless we’ve got teachers capable of communications, discovered the structure of teaching math and science. And one way to DNA, led to the invention of the microchip. do that is to expand education to high school These laureates have done work that have teachers in how to teach Advanced Place- revolutionized organ transplants and led to ment. Advanced Placement programs work. development of global positioning systems They make a significant difference in the and helped feed millions around the world. lives of our children. And so by making sure Our Nation has a vital stake in the research more teachers can teach AP, this country will and discovery that makes these advances pos- be better off in making sure that we’ve got sible. And so in my State of the Union, I the future scientists and mathematicians liv- encouraged our Nation to stay on the leading ing right here in the United States of Amer- edge of technology and education. I’ve talked ica. about an American Competitiveness Initia- Another part of the initiative is to encour- tive that will double over the next 10 years age school districts to recruit 30,000 math the Federal commitment to the most critical, and science professionals to teach in our Na- basic research programs in the physical tion’s classrooms. I mean, we want young sciences. I think that’s a good use of tax- kids to think math and science are cool sub- payers’ money. jects, that it’s okay to be a mathematician, Six of today’s eight science laureates have that it’s exciting to be a scientist. And there’s benefited from past investment in this kind no better way to make sure that young stu- of research. If we want this country to be dents are encouraged to take math and the most competitive country in the world, science than to have successful scientists ex- we have got to spend money now to make plain to our students just the wonders of ex- sure we stay on the leading edge of techno- ploration. logical change. We’ve also got to recognize You know, I was out in Albuquerque and it’s in the private sector where most money had a good visit in Intel. They’ve got an inter- is spent on research and development, yet esting program. They provide incentives for we unwisely have allowed the research and their employees to go into the classrooms of development tax credit to expire. If the local high schools and community colleges United States expects to remain competitive to say to youngsters, ‘‘Join us in these exciting in a global economy, we must encourage our fields.’’ And the exciting jobs of the 21st cen- private sector to continue to invest in lead- tury are going to be in math and science, ing-edge technologies, and therefore, we and the American people must understand ought to make the research and development that if we don’t educate our kids in math tax credit a permanent part of our Tax Code. and science, the jobs are going to go else- We can’t be the leading country in the where in the years to come. The Competitive world in science and technology unless we Initiative recognizes we’re great when it educate scientists and young mathematicians. comes to research and development, and we And so as part of the Competitive Initiative, intend to stay that way. But we’ve also got I’m going to work with the Congress to make to be great when it comes to making sure sure we extend the same standards in the our students have got the skills necessary to No Child Left Behind Act that we apply to compete in the 21st century. reading, to math. The facts are that we’re I appreciate the work that today’s laureates doing fine with fourth grade kids in math and are doing to inspire young scientists. We’ve

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got some young scientists from Benjamin I appreciate the Secretary’s leadership on Banneker High School with us. Thank you that issue. all for joining us. I appreciate you being here. We talked about the broader Middle East. I hope that you are inspired by the examples And there’s a lot to talk about. I am very of excellence and success that you see right optimistic, however, that democracy and lib- here in this ceremony today. erty will prevail. And so I want to thank you You know, it’s interesting, people generally for your interest and leadership on those par- do not pursue a career in science or tech- ticular issues. nology with the goal of fame. I’m kind of We talked about U.N. reform, structural trying to change that today. [Laughter] The reform, management reform, as well as the work of discovery is quiet and often solitary. reform of the Human Rights Commission. Yet all Americans benefit from your imagina- I was most interested in the Secretary-Gen- tion and your talent and your resolve. And eral’s thoughts. I appreciate very much his so today we’re here to say thanks for what leading on these issues, and we’ll continue you’ve done; thanks for helping improve the to work closely through Secretary Bolton— quality of life in this country; thanks for in- Ambassador Bolton with the Security Coun- spiring others. Congratulations on your med- cil and the United Nations. als, and now the military aide will read the And so, Mr. Secretary-General, thanks for citations. coming. It’s always a pleasure to welcome you here to the Oval Office. And the floor [At this point, Lt. Col. Christian Cabaniss, USMC, Marine Corps Aide to the President, is yours. Secretary-General Annan. read the citations, and the President pre- Thank you very much, Mr. President. I also enjoy our sented the medals.] periodic exchanges, and I’m very happy that The President. Again, thank you for com- we have agreed to work together on the ing. Got a little reception back here for the Darfur issue, working with other govern- honorees and their families. I’m proud to ments from Europe, from Asia, and other re- have you here in the White House. May God gions, to ensure that we do have an effective continue to bless our great Nation. Thank security presence on the ground to protect you. the IDPs and ensure that humanitarian work- ers have access to those in need. And of NOTE: The President spoke at 10:45 a.m. in the course, this is an issue where all governments East Room at the White House. have to play their role. On security—on the U.N. reform and Human Rights Council, I think the President Remarks Following Discussions With and I agree that we need to reform the United Nations Secretary-General Human Rights Council, and it should be Kofi Annan done as soon as possible. The President of February 13, 2006 the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson, is work- ing very hard to ensure that we will have that President Bush. Mr. Secretary-General, done by this month, and that when the thank you. As usual, we had a very construc- Human Rights Commission meets in Gene- tive dialog. I always enjoy visiting with the va, it will be in the process of transformation; Secretary-General. It gives us a chance to it will not be business as usual. And I also talk about our common interests and our de- thanked the President for all the support he’s sire for peace and liberty around the world. given us on U.N. reform, on the broader We had a good discussion on Sudan, with U.N. reform. And there are quite a lot of particular emphasis on Darfur. I told the Sec- things that we’re going to do. retary-General that Mrs. Garang was in to We also discussed the Middle East and the see me the other day and that we had a long Hamas elections and the need for trans- discussion—she and I had a long discussion formation of Hamas into a political party not only about the Darfur region but about along the lines that the Quartet had dis- implementing the north-south accords. And cussed. And I think there is an opportunity

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here for Hamas to transform itself into a po- love the Chicago White Sox. And so it had litical party and work with the international to be a thrilling moment for you and Eddie community and the Israeli Government. and the owners that were patient for all those We also touched on the issue of the nu- years you didn’t win. And so I congratulate clear issue in—of Iran. And here again, I you from the bottom of my heart, and thank hope between now and the time the Atomic you for your friendship. It’s great to see you. Agency issues its next report, there will be I appreciate Ken Williams, a man who ob- indications and steps from the Iranian side viously knows what he’s doing who is—was to indicate that negotiations are not dead and able to put a team together. It’s easy to put that both sides can come back to the table stars on the field. The hard thing about base- and find a way out of this crisis. We need ball is to put people who can play together, to be able to resolve it, and I hope there and I congratulate you for being a great gen- will be no steps taken to escalate the situa- eral manager. tion. I welcome Ed Farmer and the broad- Thank you very much. casting team. Eddie, good to see you again. President Bush. I appreciate you. Good Thanks. I can see they all remember you— job. Thank you. at least one person does. [Laughter] It’s good to be here with Bob DuPuy of NOTE: The President spoke at 2:06 p.m. in the baseball. I thought you’re here to sign the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, lease, you know, but it’s—[laughter]—an- he referred to Rebecca Garang, Minister of Trans- portation, Roads, and Bridges, Government of other subject. Southern Sudan; and Ambassador John R. Bolton, I do want to thank the members of my U.S. Representative to the United Nations. Cabinet who are here. It’s great to see you all. I thought you all told me you were Red Sox fans. [Laughter] Remarks Honoring the 2005 World I want to thank Senator Durbin and Sen- Series Champion Chicago White Sox ator Obama from the great State of Illinois, February 13, 2006 and Don Manzullo and Roy LaHood—Ray LaHood. Thank you all for coming. The President. Welcome. Thank you. Be I—my question to most of these folks was seated. They may be playing basketball, but like, ‘‘Were you White Sox fans at the begin- it’s always baseball season here. [Laughter] ning of the season?’’ [Laughter] The last time the Chicago White Sox won Audience member. Yes, he puts us on the the World Series was 1917. President Wood- spot. row Wilson was living here. Reinsdorf, I The President. Yes, he did. No, I’m not don’t know if you came here then or not. putting you on the spot. But I know one per- [Laughter] There were only eight teams in son—elected official who was a White Sox the American League, and the league leader fan at the beginning of the season. As a mat- hit a total of nine home runs. After 88 years ter of fact, he was a White Sox fan at the of waiting, the White Sox have earned the beginning of his life. He’s been forever a right to be called world champs, and we’re White Sox fan. He is a great mayor of a great glad you’re here. city, and that’s the mayor, his honor, Dick First of all, I want to welcome Jerry Daley. Thanks for coming. Reinsdorf. Some of my most joyous times in Roland Hemond, good to see you, Roland. my life have been during—as a baseball Thank you. Just showing off my baseball owner. Harold Baines may not have thought knowledge. Anybody that knows—[laugh- they were so joyous, since we never won ter]—knows Roland Hemond knows some- much. [Laughter] And one of the reasons thing about baseball. And it’s good to see that I ended up in baseball with my partners Harold Baines and the other coaches. is because of Jerry Reinsdorf’s help, and I I understand Ozzie is on vacation, which want to thank you for that now that we’ve I fully understand. If he’s a Caribbean guy, got the team here. I know how much you taking a look at the weather forecast up here love the game, and I know how much you yesterday would have made me not want to

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come as well. [Laughter] But I want to con- Jermaine Dye had an interesting quote that gratulate Ozzie Guillen, as well as the team I think is worth sharing with people who are and the staff, the coaching staff, and the man- paying attention at this moment. He said, agers, and all those who worked hard to make ‘‘From the start of spring training, everybody these guys ready to play. And I want to con- was hungry.’’ He didn’t say one player was gratulate Ozzie on being a great manager, hungry or a guy going into arbitration was manager of the year, as well as becoming a hungry or a free agent for next year was hun- United States citizen earlier this year. We’re gry. He said everybody was hungry. proud to have him as an American citizen. They’re—everybody wanted to go out there I don’t want to bring up the Sosa trade, and win together. Everybody was pulling on so I won’t—[laughter]. the same rope. That’s why you’re the world Audience member. Please don’t. champs. Everybody was pulling on the same The President. I won’t. [Laughter] But rope. And that’s what we’re here to honor, it’s great to see you. Harold Baines is one a great championship team. class act. I mean, that guy can not only hit, I congratulate Jermaine for being the MVP but he brought a lot of class into the club- of the World Series. I congratulate Paul for house, and I’m really proud to see you here, being the MVP of the American League Harold. Congratulations to you and the bud- Championship Series. It must be a pretty dies you’re working with. cool feeling to hit a grand slam in the World And to the players, congratulations. We’re Series. I didn’t get one in Little League, really proud to have you here at the White much less the World Series. [Laughter] And House. It means a lot for baseball fans, White you had a grand slam; you caught the last Sox fans, all across the country that you out of the season; and you witnessed the birth would take time to come and be honored of your child all in the same month. Man, here at the White House, and it’s my great what a special month. The Lord has blessed honor to honor you. It’s a big deal to have you. That’s why you’re called Mr. ‘‘Soxtober.’’ you here. [Laughter] The amazing thing about this team is you I know the effect you had on White Sox went wire to wire, which is really hard to fans, and it must have been electrifying. One do. You win one-nothing on opening day, and women in her 90s said, ‘‘I’ve been a Sox fan like, they’re in your rearview mirror for the all my life; I never thought I’d live to see rest of the season. It takes a lot to win 99 the day.’’ Think about that—think about the games and to remain in the lead and not fal- joy that you all put in the hearts of this 90- ter. And it says something about the char- year-old person, and probably some young acter of the team that you put together and ones, too, that were pulling for the White the character of the players. Sox. I got a firsthand report from the World The people of Chicago turned out en Series from two people I love dearly who had masse not only because you were baseball actually front-row seats, and that would be champs but because you have brought some my mother and father. [Laughter] I’m not character to the city. I want to applaud the going to tell you who they were rooting for, organization for supporting inner-city Little but it didn’t have much effect on the out- League. I think it’s really important for this come of the series, I’ll put it to you that way. great State of baseball to reach out to people [Laughter] of all walks of life to make sure that the sport I was impressed as a baseball guy—at least is inclusive. The best way to do it is to con- somebody who follows it still, closely—that vince little kids how to—the beauty of play- you had four complete games in a row in ing baseball. the playoffs. That’s a good strategy, Jerry, to I appreciate the baseball fields you’re keep the bullpen—[laughter]—keep the building in Chicago, kind of little centers of bullpen fresh. [Laughter] hope, little diamonds of joy for people to You know, there was great players, but no- come and be able to play the greatest game body off the chart, if you know what I mean, ever invented. I appreciate the Chicago which means you competed as a team. White Sox Charities, your support of cancer

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research and cancer treatment in the metro- day that a lot of Texas fans will never forget. politan area. Most of all, I appreciate the fact I called one of those Texas fans, who shall that these players understand they’re setting remain anonymous. I said, ‘‘How was it?’’ He examples for young boys and girls all across said, ‘‘That game was the greatest day in my Chicago, as well as the country. You’re set- life.’’ [Laughter] I said, ‘‘Well, how about ting the example that serving something your wedding?’’ [Laughter] He said, ‘‘Yes, greater than yourself is important in life; that too.’’ [Laughter] coming together as a team is a heck of a lot I want to welcome Mack and Sally Brown more important and satisfying than worrying here. Congratulations, Coach, for doing about your own batting average or your own something that—leading this group of great ERA. athletes to a victory that made a lot of Texans And so here we are in the White House, proud. I know you made a person you admire Jerry, honoring the great Chicago White Sox. proud, and a fellow who I wish were here I’m proud to be with you. God bless your today, but he’s not, and that’s Coach Darrell championship and God continue to bless the Royal. We send Coach Royal our—we send country. him our very best, and you’re following in Paul Konerko. Mr. President, on behalf his footsteps. You know, you’ve learned of our organization and all the fans on the something about the press, in all due respect South Side and all over the world, we want to those that are here—[laughter]—they to present you with this jersey and jacket. tend to underestimate people sometimes— The President. I thought you were going [laughter]—because I remember they start- to give me a loan. [Laughter] ed calling you ‘‘Mr. February.’’ Well, today, Jermaine Dye. And also, we know deep Mack, you’re giving February—the title ‘‘Mr. down you probably wish this was a Houston February’’ a whole new meaning. This Feb- Astros jacket. [Laughter] ruary you brought the national champs to the The President. Now wait a minute—— White House. Mr. Dye. Hopefully this will do. As you can see, you’ve brought out a lot Mr. Konerko. Thanks for having us here of folks here to the South Lawn. We’ve never today. had quite a celebration this big here, and it’s The President. Actually it was a Texas because there’s a lot of Texas fans living here Rangers jacket. [Laughter] in Washington. But we’ve got some of the NOTE: The President spoke at 2:35 p.m. in the university officials with us. Mr. President, East Room at the White House. In his remarks, Bill Powers, it’s good to see you, sir. I appre- he referred to Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman, Harold ciate you coming, and your wife, Kim. It’s Baines, bench coach, Eddie Einhorn, vice chair- good to see Mark Yudof and Judy, as well man, Ken Williams, general manager, Ed Farmer, as Samara. Good to see you all again. I see radio broadcaster, Roland Hemond, executive ad- the members of the board of regents, James viser to the general manager, Ozzie Guillen, man- Huffines and Rita Clements, and other mem- ager, Jermaine Dye, outfielder, and Paul Konerko, bers of the board. Thank you for being here. first baseman, Chicago White Sox; Robert A. DeLoss Dodds, I appreciate you doing a DuPuy, president and chief operating officer, Major League Baseball; Mayor Richard B. Daley fine—there he is. Hi, DeLoss. Yes, sir. of Chicago, IL; and Sammy Sosa, outfielder, Balti- I want to congratulate the coaching staff. more Orioles. One of the members of the staff has had an influence on my life. I might ask him to come up here—Mad Dog. My body is what it is Remarks Honoring the University of today because of Mad Dog. [Laughter] I ap- Texas at Austin 2005 NCAA Football preciate you. He told me once—he said, ‘‘If Champions you ever make it to Washington, I promise February 14, 2006 you, Mr. President-to-be, I’m coming up there with a team of champions.’’ And he The President. Please be seated, except did. Congratulations. I didn’t know you for you guys up there. [Laughter] Welcome owned a suit. [Laughter] to the White House. January 4, 2006, is a Jeff Madden. I had to get one made.

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The President. I didn’t know they had one being a great player, but more importantly, big enough. [Laughter] a great citizen. But Jeff is—— Mike Garcia is with us. Where’s Mike? Audience members. Oh. [Laughter] There he is. I’m glad we’re on the same side. The President. One reason the mighty [Laughter] Mike was involved in the Chil- Horns are here is because they were in good dren’s Miracle Network last spring. I take it shape, and they were tough, and they were you weren’t a wide receiver. The point is, in good condition. And the reason they were is that this guy was good in the trenches of was because of Jeff Madden and his belief football, and he’s good in the trenches of life in them as athletes and his willingness to by supporting people who need our help. work hard to get them in shape. And so you We’ve got some other—I don’t know if you guys keep listening to him. want to call them ‘‘big uglies’’ or not—but I want to thank the members of my Cabi- Kasey Studdard and Neale Tweedie and net who are with us today. We appreciate David Thomas. Where are those guys? Come you being here. I want to thank the Members on up here. The reason these three guys are of Congress—Senator Hutchison is a huge here—Will Allen was supposed to be with Texas fan—as well as Members of the House them, but I think he missed the flight. Slept of Representatives. Thank you all for being in—[laughter]—or study hall. [Laughter] here to welcome this great football team. Get These fellas took time out of their lives to back to work here quickly. [Laughter] go to the Austin Children’s Hospital to bring Mack can tell you what it takes to win, some joy into a kid’s life. You might have but one thing it takes is a team of great ath- frightened them when they first saw you. letes playing together. That’s how you win [Laughter] But my point to you is, is that national championships. I suspect it’s the dif- a championship football team is made up of ference between showing up and, you know, people of character and decency. winning all but two and showing up and win- One final athlete I want to recognize is, ning them all, is that people figured out how of course, Vince Young, the great quarter- to put something greater than themselves on back who—[applause]. the line—in this case, the University of Texas Head Coach Mack Brown. They didn’t football team. This was a team that—great bring his suit. power, great finesse. They were real quick. The President. Oh, that’s all right; he But the thing that impressed me about the doesn’t need a suit. [Laughter] team and—you know, we can follow you here Mr. Brown. He was supposed to bring in Washington, DC, just as well as we can it—forgot. follow you in Crawford—is that this team The President. Yes, you can borrow a tie. never seemed—that they never figured out [Laughter] I think Vince will tell you that the word ‘‘lose.’’ It never entered their vocab- the reason he got to where he is today is ulary. Every time they walked on the field, because of his teammates. One reason why you knew they were going to win. And per- Vince got to where he is, as well, is because haps one of the reasons why is because they he understands that the role of a star is to were winners off the field as well. put something back in the community into I’m impressed by Ahmard Hall, who’s the which you were raised. I was impressed by fullback. Where is Ahmard? There he is. I his being involved in a program called LEAP, don’t know if you know this or not, but he which means, ‘‘learn, enjoy, and play.’’ It’s was a United States marine. Once a marine, basically a chance for somebody like Vince always a marine. He served in Afghanistan to go in and say to some other—to a young and Kosovo. He entered the University of child, ‘‘Here’s what it takes to succeed in Texas on the GI bill. He’s not only a fine life.’’ It’s called mentoring. And all these ath- blocker—you need to get him to Baltimore— letes, whether they know it or not, are men- [laughter]—he started something called toring by the way they behave, by the exam- ‘‘Momma Bear Cares,’’ which sends packages ple they set for young kids all across Texas to our troops overseas. Congratulations on and all across the country.

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I want to congratulate Coach and Sally for Statement on the Anniversary of the setting the examples they’ve set for these Death of Former Prime Minister players. They’re instrumental in what’s called Rafiq Hariri of Lebanon the Rise School in Austin. It’s a school that February 14, 2006 helps infants and toddlers and preschool chil- dren with developmental disabilities. They’re One year ago today, former Lebanese very much involved with the Capital Cam- Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated. paign for the Helping Hands in Austin. They, Mr. Hariri was a great Lebanese patriot who like these players, are good citizens. worked to rebuild a free, independent, and prosperous Lebanon after years of brutal civil I also want to say congratulations to the war. Our thoughts are with the people of coach for not only being a good—having a Lebanon as they mark this anniversary. good football team, being able to raise these Lebanon has continued to make progress young men to butt heads harder than the in the year since Mr. Hariri’s murder, thanks other ones around the country, but nearly to the foundation of freedom he laid and the half the team earned a spot on the UT ath- determination of the Lebanese people. Leb- letic director’s honor roll for posting a 3.0 anon has conducted a free and fair par- grade point average last fall. liamentary election and begun economic re- forms. Great challenges remain, and the This team won a lot of football games and United States will continue to stand with the won the national championship, but of the people of Lebanon as they strive to build a 32 seniors on the team, 28 will have earned free and democratic future. their degrees by the end of this summer— and one of those, who hasn’t quite earned it yet, made a promise to his mother. And Message to the Congress Vince, I’d suggest you honor that promise Transmitting a Report by the to your mother—[laughter]—and get your National Science Board degree by the end of this summer, which I February 14, 2006 know he will. To the Congress of the United States: All in all, we’re honored to have a great Consistent with 42 U.S.C. 1863(j)(1), I group of individuals, people who brought transmit herewith a report prepared for the great pride to our State and pride to a great Congress and the Administration by the Na- university. Welcome to Washington. Con- tional Science Board entitled, ‘‘Science and gratulations to the national champs, the Uni- Engineering Indicators—2006.’’ This report versity of Texas. represents the seventeenth in the series ex- amining key aspects of the status of science and engineering in the United States.

NOTE: The President spoke at 1:07 p.m. on the George W. Bush South Lawn at the White House. In his remarks, The White House, he referred to Darrell Royal, former head coach, February 14, 2006. University of Texas at Austin football team; Wil- liam Powers, Jr., president, University of Texas at Austin, and his wife, Kim Heilbrun; Mark G. Remarks on Health Care in Dublin, Yudof, chancellor, University of Texas System, his wife, Judy, and his daughter, Samara; James R. Ohio Huffines, chairman, and Rita C. Clements, vice February 15, 2006 chairman, board of regents, University of Texas System; DeLoss Dodds, men’s athletic director, Thanks for coming. Please be seated. Jack, University of Texas at Austin; and Mike Garcia, thanks for the introduction; thanks for letting offensive guard, Kasey Studdard, offensive guard, us convert your lobby into a—[laughter]— Neale Tweedie, tight end, David Thomas, tight place to come and visit. end, and Will Allen, offensive guard, University So I get on Air Force One this morning, of Texas at Austin football team. I said, ‘‘Take me to Dublin’’—the guy heads

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east. [Laughter] I said, ‘‘Nuh-uh, Dublin, I want to thank my friend Senator George Ohio.’’ [Laughter] Proud to be here. Thanks Voinovich. I’ve known him for a long time. for letting me come and visit with you. It’s He’s steady; he is capable; he is a great public neat to be in ‘‘the House that Dave Built.’’ servant. Thank you for being here, George. He was a great American. I want to thank the Members of the George Voinovich and I were sharing United States Congress who managed to get Dave Thomas stories, particularly when he a free flight on Air Force One—[laughter]— came and helped educate and lead the Gov- to come and join us. I’m better for the fact ernors—that’s when we were Governors— that you accompanied me; thank you. And about adoption. And one of his great legacies that would be Pat Tiberi, the United States is inspiring people to show the ultimate act Congressman from this district. Congress- of love, which is to adopt a child. The other man David Hobson is with us as well—as great legacy is, leave behind a great company well as Congresswoman Deborah Pryce. that is providing thousands with good jobs; Thank you all for coming today. another great legacy is to leave behind con- The speaker of the house is with us; Mr. sumer choice. You can either get your three- Speaker, thanks for joining us. The president quarter pound triple cheeseburger—[laugh- of the Ohio Senate is with us. Glad you guys ter]—or your salad. [Laughter] are here; thanks for coming. I also want to I appreciate the fact that Wendy’s under- mention Senator Steve Stivers, United States stands that choice for the consumers is im- Senator, Lieutenant Colonel in the Ohio Na- portant. I also appreciate the fact that tional Guard. He served a 12-month tour of Wendy’s understands that giving employees duty in the Middle East and Africa. I appre- the opportunity to make rational choices in ciate your service. God bless you and your health care is an important part of having family, and God bless all our troops in harm’s a workforce that is vigorous, active, and en- way. thused about their jobs. And so today I’m I skipped the majority leader—I didn’t here to talk about innovation in the health mean to—Mr. Majority Leader, in fact, it’s place, how we can make sure the health care an oversight, you know? Thank you for being system in the United States of America re- here, Larry Flowers. I want to thank the mains the best in the world. mayor of the city of Dublin for joining us. And so, Jack, thanks for letting me come. Appreciate you coming, Mayor. I’m honored Thanks for being an innovator. I love the en- you’re here. Thanks for taking time out of trepreneurial spirit of America. And the en- your schedule. trepreneurial spirit doesn’t end if you happen I just met with some folks that work here to be a big company. As a matter of fact, at Wendy’s—I’ll talk about them later. But it’s important to remain entrepreneurial, no I also met with the owner of a restaurant matter what your size is. And to have a com- here, Frank Ciotola. I met with Shawn pany like Wendy’s introduce HSAs, which Kessinger; he’s the vice president of finance I’m about to talk about, reminds me that the for the Ohio Credit League Union. I met entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well here. with a farmer, Debbie Carr. We talked about I appreciate the team, the management health care from the perspective of small- team, and all the employees for giving me business owners, entrepreneurs. I listened to a chance to come and visit. I will keep my their concerns; I listened to their solutions. remarks relatively short so you can get back And as I begin to give this address on the to work. [Laughter] health care system, I want you to know that Governor, thank you for coming. I appre- many of their thoughts are incorporated in ciate Governor Bob Taft joining us. Yester- what the vision is for good health care. So day I had the privilege of meeting with his thanks for taking time to be here today. wife, Hope. We were talking about how to Let me start by giving you kind of a state rally the great armies of compassion around of the economy: It’s strong. I recognize the United States to help provide love and there’s parts of Ohio that aren’t necessarily help and concern for those amongst us who as strong as other parts of the country. But need love and help and concern. from an overall perspective, when you look

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at the Nation’s economy, it’s strong, and it’s competitors, and the reaction with some is, getting stronger. And the reason I say that ‘‘Let’s don’t compete; let’s just kind of shut is because we’re now in our fifth year of unin- her down; let’s get protectionist,’’ or, ‘‘Why terrupted economic growth. don’t we isolate.’’ I have a different point of Last year, this economy, in spite of high view. My attitude is, we shouldn’t fear the energy prices and in spite of natural disasters, future; we ought to shape the future. My atti- grew at 3.5 percent. After-tax income of our tude is, the United States of America must people—and that matters a lot, you know, continue to be the leader in the world econ- whether or not people have got money in omy, for the good of our people. their pocket after paying their taxes—is up And so here are some ways as to how to 8 percent since 2001. Productivity is high. make sure this economy remains strong today It’s important to have high productivity and remains strong for years to come. First, growth in an economy because that’s how in order for us to be a leader in the world, economies improve their standard of living we’ve got to remain a leader when it comes for their people. The more productive you to technological developments. So I’m pro- are as a citizen or the more productive you posing to the Congress an American Com- are as a company, the more likely it is you petitiveness Initiative, which will double the will generate higher revenues and higher basic research in basic sciences over the next quality of life. 10 years. And so productivity is increasing, which is And secondly, I recognize most research a measurement of not only this country’s is done in the private sector, and yet the in- competitiveness, but as a measure of whether centive for companies to invest in research, or not life is improving for our citizens. Small which yields technologies, which increases businesses are thriving. That’s really good standard of living and makes sure our econ- news. Most new jobs in America are created omy is on the leading edge, is through the by small businesses. And when the small- research and development tax credit. It ex- business sector is thriving, it means people pires on an annual basis. It is very difficult are working. We’ve added 4.7 million new for private sector to plan when a Tax Code jobs over the last 21⁄2 years. The national un- is uncertain. And so Congress, in order to employment rate is 4.7 percent. That’s low. make sure that we invest in the future, should Things are improving here in Ohio. The make the research and development tax unemployment rate is still 5.9 percent, but credit a permanent part of our Tax Code. nevertheless, the trends are in good shape. Finally, in order to remain competitive, You’ve gone from 6.4 percent to 5.9 percent. we’ve got to have kids who understand math Obviously, there’s still work to do. George and science. And so I laid out an initiative— and members of the delegation are con- I spent some time talking about it last week. cerned about trade that is fair and free. He I’m going to continue talking about it. I’m wants the manufacturers here in Ohio to be looking forward to working with—this is an treated fairly in places like China. I assured issue, by the way, where we can put aside him I understand it’s part of my job. I’m needless politics, which tends to dominate going to India at the end of this month, and Washington, DC, and focus on the good for I’m going to make it clear to the Indians, the future of this country. I’m confident we ‘‘We will look forward to trading with you, can get something done on this very impor- but just treat us the way we treat you; that’s tant education as well as research and tech- all we ask.’’ The reason I say that is because nology issue. we can compete with anybody, anytime, any- In order to make sure we’re competitive, where, so long as the rules are fair. we’ve got to be wise about your money. The The fundamental question is, how do we tax relief we passed is working. In order to remain a leader in the world economy? You make sure America is the most competitive know, there’s uncertainty in this economy of Nation in the world, we’ve got to keep your ours. People are changing work a lot—that taxes low and be wise about how we spend kind of creates a sense of uncertainty. People your money, which means we’ve got to learn see China and India out there looming as to set priorities in Washington, DC. We can’t

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try to be all things to all people when it health care system in the world, make no comes to spending your money. We’re on the mistake about it. The question is, how do we way to cutting this deficit in half by 2009, keep it that way? And I’ve got some ideas and I intend to keep us on track to cut the for you. deficit in half by 2009. First of all, we’ve got to choose between But to be wise—to be competitive in the two competing philosophies when it comes future, we’ve got to get off being hooked on to health care. Behind all the rhetoric in Middle Eastern oil. In order for us to grow— Washington and all the proposals, there’s I said something in the State of the Union really a philosophical debate. On the one that probably surprised some of you. I said, hand, there’s some folks who—good-hearted we have a serious problem; we’re addicted folks, good, decent folks who believe that to oil. But I meant what I said. I fully under- Government ought to be making the deci- stand that an economy that requires oil from sions for the health care industry. And there parts of the world that—where some coun- are some of us who believe that the health tries may not like us, puts our economic secu- care industry ought to be centered on the rity at risk and puts our national security at consumer. risk. And I’m serious about working with I think as we kind of make our minds up members of both parties to advance techno- about what philosophy works, it’s important logical research that will enable us to drive to look at the world health care systems. cars by using switch grass as a base stock of Other nations have adopted for Government ethanol—or wood chips, as well as the corn control of health care for centralized deci- and soybeans we use today. I mean, I can’t sionmaking when it comes to health care, wait for the day, and I know future Presi- which has created long waiting lines and dents can’t wait for the day, when somebody quality of care not as good as the American walks in with the farm report, and says, ‘‘Mr. system and a significant lag in technological President, the crops are up, and we’re less development. dependent on Middle Eastern oil.’’ And it’s We’ve done a different path up to now in coming; it’s coming. our Nation’s history. We believe in private To keep this country competitive, we need medicine that encourages innovation and a health care system that provides Americans change. That’s been the cornerstone of with high-quality care at good prices. And American public health up until now. And that’s what I want to talk about today. The we have a choice to make. I’ve made my health care costs are rising sharply in Amer- choice; I’m going to lead the Congress to ica. If they continue rising the way they are, make sure that our health care system pre- that will make us less competitive. Many serves America’s system of private medicine, Americans are worried that they’re not going that we strengthen the relationship between to get the treatments they need. Small busi- doctors and patients, and that we make the nesses, in particular, are struggling to pay for benefits of private medicine more affordable health care for their employees. If two-thirds and accessible for our citizens. That’s our of the new jobs in America are created by strategy. small businesses, and your small-business Obviously, Government has a role to play. owner is struggling to keep their employee We have made a commitment to the poor base because of health care, then we’ve got and the elderly in the United States, and it’s to do something about it. Workers have lost a commitment we’re going to keep. When good coverage because they’re changing jobs. I got to Washington, I took a look at the I’ve told you, there’s uncertainty in the mar- Medicare system. It’s a very important part ketplace because people are changing work. of our Nation’s health care system, and that And if you fear about losing health care when is Medicare, except it was old and tired and you change work, it creates even more uncer- hadn’t been changed. It was a centrally-con- tainty. trolled system. I’ll give you an example of More than 45 million Americans have no what I meant by old and tired. This is a sys- health insurance at all, and this is unaccept- tem that paid $28,000 for ulcer surgery— able for our country. We’ve got the best when you’ve got an ulcer, you check in the

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hospital—Medicare would write you a benefit is a third less than what was expected. $28,000 check. It wouldn’t pay the $500 nec- In other words, when we started rolling out essary to prevent the ulcer from happening the plan it was expected that the prescription in the first place. In other words, medicine drug benefit would cost the seniors $37 a had begun to change, and Medicare didn’t month. The actual cost is $25 a month. It’s change with it. One reason why is because an interesting lesson about what can happen it’s centrally controlled; all decisions had to when you give people different options from be made by people out of Washington, DC. which to choose. And so I worked with Members of the United States Congress to modernize the sys- The other thing that’s important for you tem. I said, ‘‘If we’ve got a commitment to all to know is that the typical senior will end our elderly, let’s make the commitment a up spending about half of what he or she good one.’’ We’re not going to make the com- used to spend on prescription drugs. I mean, mitment and have it be a mediocre commit- if you want the system to function well, it ment; it ought to be a good, sound commit- seemed like to me and others here that we ment. And we did. And we added the pre- ought to modernize the system to make it scription drug benefit to Medicare that mod- good for our seniors. It’s working. ernizes the system. If you happen to have a mother or father And at the same time, we gave seniors or a neighbor who’s a senior, I strongly urge more options from which to choose. See, part you to get your loved one or your friend to of making sure a health care system works, call 1–800–Medicare or to go on the web at seems like to me, the consumers ought to medicare.gov and help that person realize have more choice. In a centralized system, the great new options available to him or her. the Government makes the choice. In a pri- vate system that focuses on kind of the mar- Medicaid, as well, is a program that we kets, people ought to have a choice. People take very seriously. It’s a program aimed at ought to be able to be given different options helping the poor. It’s administered in con- from which to choose. junction with States. It is health care for low- And so we did modernize the system. It’s income families with children, poor seniors, tough sledding up there in Washington to get and disabled Americans. It’s a very important things changed. [Laughter] People like the program. It needed to be restructured, how- status quo at times. Twenty-four million ever, in order to make the program actually Americans have now signed up to the new work in a cost-effective way. And so we de- Medicare plan since January 1st. That’s a lot cided to work with the States to give Gov- of folks, 24 million. Hundreds of thousands ernors and folks at the local level more flexi- are enrolling each week. Now, needless to bility in how to structure the program to say, when you have a change that size, there’s meet the needs at the local level. going to be some things that need to be ad- See, in the past, if you had a good idea, justed in the system. And you probably read if old Taft had a good idea, he had to come about kind of the dual-eligible problem. I don’t know if you’ve had that problem here to Washington and beg permission for a waiv- in Ohio, Governor. We’re dealing with it. er: ‘‘I, the Governor, was elected to do some- Our job is to solve problems when they arise. thing good for the people. I’m worried about When you have that big a shift, you can those who are qualified for Medicaid. Please image there’s going to be glitches. But by give me permission to do what I think is far, the vast majority of people are signing right.’’ The new bill I signed is one which up to a program that’s making a big dif- will make the States—give States a lot more ference in their lives. flexibility when it comes time to signing up Competition—in other words, when you people—to designing eligibility standards to have choices, it creates a sense of competi- providing what the programs ought to look tion in the marketplace—is lowering costs for like. In other words, it’s flexibility all aiming American seniors. The average premium that to make sure the Medicaid system works seniors now pay for the prescription drug well.

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We take the program seriously, but we of us. And there are fewer people paying in fully understand what happens when the bu- the system per person retiring. reaucracy becomes so encrusted that it’s im- And what’s interesting—and you’ve got to possible to design programs that will actually know this—is that my generation has been meet States budgetary needs as well as the promised greater benefits than a previous needs of the people. And we’re remedying generation. So you can imagine when you that fact. start to think about the strain, a lot of us I mentioned to you we have the goal of have been promised greater benefits with making sure that our budgets are respon- fewer people paying for us. And it’s not going sible. One of—the budget I just signed or to work; it’s simply not going to work. the bill I just signed and the budget I pro- I was very serious in the State of the posed is finally beginning to do something Union—and I explained this to George and about the growth in Medicare and Medicaid. the Congressmen—that I understand a solu- I want to describe to you a little bit about tion to Social Security and Medicare in terms what we’re doing. of dealing with a bulge of retirees is going Let me give you this story, kind of an anal- to require a bipartisan solution. And I mean ogy—there is a difference between slowing it to Members of Congress—I expect there your car down to the speed limit or putting to be a bipartisan effort to come up with a your car into reverse. I want you to think solution. Nothing will pass the House or the about that as I explain to you that, in working Senate unless there’s agreement. And now with the Congress, we have slowed Medicare is the time to put aside the politics that have growth down from 8.1 percent a year to 7.7 stopped rational people from coming up with percent a year. In other words, we found a rational answer to a very serious problem, ways to reform the system so that we can to set it aside, sit down at the table, and solve slow the growth rate down to make Medicare this problem once and for all—so we can more affordable for future generations. travel the country looking at young workers We’re not putting the car in reverse; we’re and saying, ‘‘You’re not going to pay payroll just finding the speed limit. taxes into a bust system anymore. You’re Same thing with Medicaid. It grows—slow going to pay payroll taxes into a system which it down from 6.9 percent a year to 6.6 per- will be around not only for baby boomers cent a year, which means just by slowing the like me but for a young generation of Ameri- growth rate down on those two important cans coming up.’’ Now is the time for us to programs and, at the same time, making get something done. them more efficient and delivering better I want to talk about another program that’s services, we’re saving the taxpayers $104 bil- working. One of the things that we’ve got lion over 5 years. I want to thank the Con- to do is spend time in Washington actually gress for working on this. You hear rhetoric, measuring results of programs. You know, of course, that we’re ‘‘starving the poor.’’ The every title on a bill sounds just fantastic, you car is going the speed limit; it’s not going know. [Laughter] The problem is, is that backwards. every bill doesn’t deliver the results it’s sup- Now, the long-term solution for Medicare posed to. I will tell you about a program that requires—and Social Security—requires an does. It fits into a vision of a health care sys- understanding that we’ve got a lot of baby tem where the Government does have re- boomers getting ready to retire. The true sponsibility, and that’s community health strain on our budget is really going to be the centers. unfunded deficits caused by a baby boom One of the real strains on local hospitals generation retiring, with fewer workers to and local health providers is the fact that the pay for guys like me. See? I mean, a lot of poor and the indigent use emergency rooms us are retiring. As a matter of fact, my retire- for primary care—it’s an incredibly ineffi- ment date is—I turn 62 on 2008, which is— cient use of assets. It’s an important use of [laughter]—pretty convenient time to retire. assets if somebody can’t find care and they [Laughter] There’s a lot of us, a whole lot need help—I’m not denigrating the people

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going to the emergency rooms, but I am say- by a third party, basically your insurance ing there’s a better way to be wise about how company. we spend your money and to solve a very It means most Americans have no idea important problem. And that is have the what their actual cost of treatment is. You emergency rooms be there for emergencies, show up; you got a traditional plan; you got and have primary care facilities like commu- your downpayment; you pay a little copay, nity health centers being there for primary but you have no idea what the cost is. Some- care for the indigent and the poor. body else pays it for you. And so there’s no Since I took office, we’ve opened or ex- reason at all to kind of worry about price. panded about 800 health centers. There are If somebody else is paying the bill, you just now 3,700 of these centers around the kind of—hey, it seems like a pretty good deal. United States serving 13 million Americans. There’s no pressure for an industry to It is a cost-effective way to provide primary lower price. And so what you’re seeing is care for those who need help. And I’m going price going up. If you don’t care what you’re to call upon Congress and work with Con- paying, and the provider doesn’t have any in- gress to put 400 more of those health centers centive to lower, the natural inclination is for in. the cost to go up. And the insurance compa- So what I’m telling you is, is that the Fed- nies, sure enough, pass on the costs—the in- eral Government obviously has a role, to crease in cost to you and your employer. That’s what’s happening. make sure the Medicare system is cost-effec- The fundamental problem with traditional tive and works well, make sure Medicaid coverage is that there’s no incentive to con- works well and gives flexibility to States, and trol how their health care dollars are spent. to expand community health centers. You don’t have any incentive, whatsoever. I now want to talk to you about how the And that’s one of the cost drivers in our sys- rest of us need to have a health care system, tem. If we want to solve health care prob- if you don’t fall into those categories. What lems, if we want to make health care afford- should the role of the Government be? And able and available, we’ve got to analyze and I believe the role of the Government ought address the cost-drivers of health care. And to be to empower consumers to make there’s one right there. If patients controlled choices. And so let me talk to you about five how their health care dollars are spent, the ideas I have to make sure that health care result is better treatment at lower cost. is more available and more affordable. I’ll give you an interesting example of a And the first one is to expand health sav- procedure called LASIK—laser eye sur- ings accounts. I call them HSAs. When you geries. It’s a good example of how the market hear me say HSA, that’s kind of government- can work when there’s not a third-party payer speak for health savings account. They— involved. You might remember when LASIK HSAs are helping to begin a movement away first appeared, was approved about a decade from what’s called a third-party payer system ago for its use. It went through the process to one where the consumer is very much in- of getting a Government approval, and when volved in making wise purchases of health approved, it was an opportunity for people care. That’s a very important philosophical to have their eyesight—feeling a little nerv- point. ous about LASIK surgery when it first came The traditional insurance today will cover out, and it was awfully expensive. Consumers your health care costs—most of your health began to, however, inquire as to why some- care costs—in exchange for a high premium thing costs the way it costs, how safe it was. payment up front. The costs are generally Doctors felt more comfortable starting to shared by you and your employer. You may offer more and more of the surgery. More also pay a small deductible and copayment providers came in the market; there was at the time of treatment. What’s interesting transparency of pricing. You might—I can re- about this system is that those payments member billboards springing up with people cover only a fraction of the actual costs of advertising LASIK surgery. Today, the price health care, the rest of which are picked up of LASIK surgery has dropped dramatically.

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More people are getting the surgery; they’re best treatment for the best price. In other giving up their glasses and contact lenses. words, it’s your money; you’re responsible for The market is working. I think if you go routine medical expenses; the insurance pays back and look at the history of the pricing for the catastrophic care. You’re responsible of LASIK surgery, the availability of LASIK for paying for the portion of your health care surgery, you’ll find that when consumers start costs up to your deductible. And so you— showing up saying, ‘‘I want to know more you talk to your doctor; you say, ‘‘Well, can’t information; I’m interested in this idea, how we find this drug at a little cheaper cost?’’ about—how does your cost compare to old Or you go to a specialist, ‘‘Maybe we can Joe’s over here’’—the market began to ad- do this a little better—old Joe does it for X; just. LASIK surgery is now more widespread, I’m going—why don’t you try it for Y?’’ It at much more reasonable cost for consumers. allows you to choose treatment or tests that And so, how to affect those kinds of cost meet your needs in a way that you’re com- changes in the health care industry, that’s fortable with when it comes to paying the what we’re really here to discuss. And one bills. way to do so is to—to make health care more responsive is through health savings ac- In other words, decisions about routine counts. Many people in our country don’t medical treatments are made by you and the know what a health savings account is. I will doc, not by third-party people that you never start to try to explain it here. know. And all of a sudden, when you inject First, it is a part of our drive to make this type of thinking in the system, price health care more consumer-driven. There’s starts to matter. You’re aware of price. You two components to a health savings account; begin to say, ‘‘Well, maybe there’s a better one is low-cost catastrophic insurance cov- way to do this and more cost-effective way.’’ erage, and a tax-free health savings account. The combined cost of catastrophic insur- Those are the two components of what I’m ance coverage and HSA contributions are talking about. Catastrophic coverage protects usually less expensive than traditional cov- you and the family in the event of devastating erage. That’s important to know. In other medical illness—if you’re really sick, a cata- words, HSAs are making health care more strophic plan kicks in. affordable. By the way, these HSAs became The health savings account portion of this expanded—George tried to do it in the mid- product allows you and your employer to 1990s, 1996 I think—yes—medical savings contribute tax-free to pay for routine medical accounts, he called them. He couldn’t get costs. In other words, your company or your- them going. People who had the business self or a combination of the two makes a tax- didn’t want any competition, which some- free contribution into a health savings plan, times happens in the marketplace. [Laugh- a savings plan that you own. It’s yours to call ter] But he thought of the idea; it made your own. And the savings within that plan sense. This really—these HSAs have kicked are tax-free. In other words, you’re not just off big time because of the Medicare bill I going to put it under your pillow; you put signed. And they haven’t been around a long it into a bank until you use it. The interest time. They’re just kind of a fresh product will be tax-free. Your money is growing. that the marketplace is becoming used to. It means that if you don’t spend money in your savings account on health care, you Forty percent of those who own HSAs can roll it over to the next year, tax-free. You have family incomes below $50,000 a year. have money growing for health care to pay In other words, if people are having trouble incidental expenses; it’s growing at a reason- affording traditional insurance, all of a sud- able interest rate; it’s yours you call your own. den the HSA becomes a more affordable And if you don’t spend it in a year, you can product. HSAs make a difference—are mak- put it into the next year and the next year ing health care more accessible to those with- and the next year. out insurance. In the first year HSAs were For many routine medical needs, HSAs available, more than a third of those who mean you can shop around until you get the bought HSAs had been uninsured. In other

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words, as health care becomes more afford- Wendy’s decided to take on this product. You able, it makes it easier, obviously, for some- were facing double-digit increases in the cost body who is uninsured to be able to pick up of providing health care. That’s a strain if health insurance. you’re a CEO. In order to have a workforce, You know, a lot of young folks are unin- you’ve got to have a workforce that’s com- sured. You might remember the days when fortable with the health care plan, and all you kind of felt like you were never going of a sudden, it’s beginning to take big bites to get sick. [Laughter] So why should you out of the balance sheet. It’s hard to expand buy insurance? Why do you need coverage? your business, it’s hard to grow when more A lot of young folks are saying, ‘‘Wait a and more of your costs are being consumed minute, this is a pretty good deal. If I’m going by health care. And it provides a real tension to stay healthy and can save a portion of that for small-business owners or large business money, tax-free, and I’m not going to spend managers—how do you take care of your money on health care for a while, all of a people? No corporation, no entity can run sudden a nest egg really begins to build.’’ unless the people are taken care of and, at By the way, it’s a nest egg they call their the same time, expand your business. own, not something the Government—if The company wanted to reduce projected there’s excess money in your account, the health care increases. You didn’t want to Government can’t take it away, or insurance keep passing on the high costs of—increasing can’t take it away; it’s yours. You own the costs to your employees. So they adopted thing. It’s a vital part of kind of a responsible HSAs. About 9,000 of Wendy’s full-time em- society is when there’s a sense of ownership ployees and their families have got HSAs. In in important parts of our economy. other words, Wendy’s said, ‘‘Why don’t we Over the last 10 months, the number of give people a chance to make health care de- HSAs has tripled. In other words, people are cisions themselves.’’ They don’t have some becoming aware. One of the reasons I’m here of the attitude in Washington. If you believe talking about HSAs at Wendy’s is because like Washington believes, you would never you’ve decided to implement this product. try an HSA because, ‘‘People can’t decide I want people to be aware of it. The number of people who bought HSAs has gone from for themselves,’’ see? That’s not what the a million to 3 million. I’m going to talk today folks here at Wendy’s thought. about ways to make sure that HSAs are— At the end of the first year with HSAs, even expand even further. more than 90 percent of Wendy’s employees You know, I can remember the debate in had positive balances in their savings ac- Washington—I’m sure you can as well—I re- counts. In other words, there’s a sharing member one person who said, ‘‘Health sav- ratio. The company paid—helped pay the ings accounts are not a solution for the unin- premium for the catastrophic care. They sured; they’re regressive; they favor the shared the money that goes in to help pay wealthy.’’ It’s just not the facts. They’ve for incidental or routine expenses. But 90 helped the uninsured, and a lot of folks with percent of the folks didn’t use all the money incomes under $50,000 are buying these for the routine expenses. It’s kind of inter- plans. It’s kind of basically saying, ‘‘If you’re esting, maybe it helps preventative medicine, not making a lot of money, you can’t make I guess—when you’re watching your own decisions for yourself.’’ That’s kind of a money, and you realize that if you take care Washington attitude, isn’t it, ‘‘We’ll decide of your body and you exercise and you don’t for you; you can’t figure it out yourself.’’ I do stupid things, you end up saving money. think a lot of folks here at Wendy’s would [Laughter] And when you save money, it’s argue that point of view is just simply back- your money, not the company’s money. wards and not true. Medical claims through this company have People have said that expanding HSAs decreased by 17 percent since they’ve imple- would fail to reduce health care costs. It’s mented HSAs. It’s an interesting statistic, I just not the case. I just talked to Joe Cava— think. After more than 5 years of health care he knows what it’s done to your costs. costs going at double-digit rates, Wendy’s

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overall health care costs rose only by 1 per- made me more informed, because you dis- cent last year. HSAs have had a positive ef- cuss it with your doctor now.’’ She’s talking fect. This has a positive effect on the indi- about health care. ‘‘You want to know up vidual employee; it’s had a positive effect on front what it’s going to cost and what you the income statement of the company. They need to know. You become a better informed work. consumer.’’ HSAs are working; they’re work- And, Jeff, you made a good—get the boy ing. And I’m looking forward to working with a raise. [Laughter] Here’s what he said—you Congress to expand them to more Ameri- know, never mind. He said, ‘‘We entered into cans. this plan to use our money more wisely and I’m going to talk about three ways to make to allow our employees to use their money them more attractive, so more people can wisely.’’ Kind of an interesting corporate con- have the benefits of an HSA, like Marla or cept, to allow our employees to use their the small-business owners we’ve had. The own—more money wisely. ‘‘It’s making greatest obstacle—one of the greatest obsta- health care more transparent,’’ Jeff says, ‘‘and cles to expansion of HSAs is the Tax Code. making improved health more sustainable for One problem is that under current law, em- our employees and for all the consumers of ployers and employees pay no income or pay- health care.’’ I think he gets it. He gets the roll tax on any health insurance provided philosophy of having a consumer-driven sys- through the workplace. The health care plan tem. here at Wendy’s, you don’t pay for it. It’s The savings have allowed Wendy’s to raise a benefit that’s not taxable. Those who buy the company’s contribution to its employees’ their insurance on their own don’t get the HSA accounts. By saving money on health same tax break. That means that the self-em- insurance, it enables them to put more ployed, the unemployed, and workers at money into your account, which has got to companies that do not provide insurance are be a heck of a good benefit, working for this at a disadvantage. The playing field isn’t company. It’s your money now; it grows tax- level. And so I believe that one thing Con- free. It goes in tax-free; it grows tax-free; and gress needs to do is to give Americans who you take it out tax-free. purchase their own HSA policies the same I met with Marla Hipsher. Thanks for tax breaks as those who get their health insur- coming, Marla. She works here. She is a sen- ance from their employers. ior paralegal for 4 years. She was part of the Another problem is that under current law, briefing party that was there when I arrived. the amount you can put into your HSA tax- She is a single mom with a 24-year-old free is limited to the amount of your deduct- daughter and two teenage sons. As an aside, ible. But sometimes your out-of-pocket ex- she has the toughest job in America, being penses are greater than your deductible. a single mother. She obviously cares about That’s because on some catastrophic plans, her health care for herself and, more impor- there is an additional copay, and therefore, tantly, for her children. Marla’s sons are on when you—you’re paying after-tax dollars her HSA plan with her. In other words, it’s under the current law if you exceed the a family plan. She enjoys the choice. She’s amount of money you spend beyond your de- comfortable with the control she has over her ductible. We can change that. We can raise HSA. Marla’s premiums with her HSA are the cap on the amount of money you put 18 percent lower than the traditional plan into your HSA so it remains tax-free, so that she used to have at Wendy’s. She’s saving all out-of-pocket expenses can be covered. money. It makes it easier to do the hardest That’s the important—[applause]. job in America, which is being a single moth- And finally, HSAs—we want to make sure er. She likes her HSA so much, she’s helping they meet the practical needs of today’s her 24-year-old daughter look into setting workers. I told you, people are changing jobs. one up herself. Listen to your mother; it And one of the problems is a lot of folks fear makes a lot of sense. [Laughter] that when they change jobs, they’re going to I want folks who don’t understand HSAs lose their health care. And that means—peo- to listen to what Marla has to say: ‘‘It has ple feel like they’ve got to get locked into

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a job because of health care, and that’s not tion about prices and quality on most com- right. We need more—they need to be more mon medical procedures. thoughtful to our workers and recognize that Tomorrow I’m going to have a little visit this is a changing world in which we live. with people in the insurance industry and the And so we ought to make sure people can health care industry and the business indus- take their own health savings account with try to encourage transparency. I know Mem- them job to job. bers of Congress are working on a bill. It Today, the savings in your health ac- would, better this be done with people say- count—health savings account are portable; ing, ‘‘Oh, we understand it’s important to be portable means you can take it job to job. transparent.’’ There’s always a bill out there So you’ve got savings in your own account; in case the voluntarism is not quite as strong you can take it with you. But the health insur- as it should be. [Laughter] ance that comes with the account you can’t Third policy that’s important is to apply take with you, because of outdated laws and modern information technology to our med- practices that prevent insurers from offering ical system. Doctors practice 21st century portable policies. So I believe that health in- medicine; they still have 19th century filing surers should be allowed to sell portable HSA systems. And this is an important issue. One policies nationwide. reason it’s an important issue, because when You see, it’s like car insurance. If you a doc writes their files by hand, you generally change jobs, you can take your car insurance can’t read the writing. [Laughter] That leads with you. You can’t take your insurance in to inefficiency and error. In hospitals there your HSA with you. In order to make sure is more risk of preventable medical error this economy works better, in order to make when records are handwritten, instead of sure the health care system functions better being cross-checked on a computer. Often- for our workers, we’ve got to make sure port- times doctors duplicate expensive tests be- ability in HSAs is consistent and real. It’s cause they do not have access to previous going to make a difference in people’s lives results. In other words, the medical system when Congress gets that done. has not taken advantage of information tech- The second policy—way to make—making nology like I’m sure Wendy’s has, or other sure health care is affordable and accessible industries around the country. is to increase transparency in our health care And so I set a goal in 2004 that most Amer- system. To be smart consumers, you need icans would have an electronic health record to be informed consumers. It’s hard to make within 10 years. You’d have your own health wise choices unless you have information record on a chip. And we’re making pretty available. In order to spend your HSA dollars good progress toward that goal. Mike Leavitt wisely, you need to know in advance what is the Secretary of Health and Human Serv- your options are. You need to know the qual- ices. He’s got a whole division inside HHS ity of doctors and hospitals in your area; you aiming towards getting information tech- need to know the full extent of procedures nology spread throughout health care. that someone recommends to you. First thing is, they’ve got to have a lan- You know, like when you buy a new car, guage that kind of can talk between a hospital you have access to consumer research on in Dublin and a hospital in Crawford, you safety, you have access to information on reli- know? Well, they don’t have a hospital in ability, you can compare price. There’s per- Crawford. [Laughter] How about a hospital formance data. You can become an informed close to Crawford? [Laughter] And that’s im- consumer before you purchase your auto- portant, because there’s a lot of different— mobile. And that same sense of transparency the language needs to be standardized. And and information ought to be available in Mike’s making pretty good progress on that. health care. A modern health care system And we’re developing solutions for a na- recognizes that people ought to be encour- tionwide health information network. One of aged to shop for quality and price. And so the things I’ve insisted upon is that it’s got the health care industry and the insurance to be secure and private. There’s nothing industry needs to provide reliable informa- more private than your own health records.

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And so any system that works is one that is— place for entrepreneurship. There’s nothing it’s your record; you decide the disclosure better than talking to somebody and saying, of your health records. ‘‘I started my own business,’’ or, ‘‘I own my And let me give you an example about how own company.’’ It’s refreshing to me. It’s just such a system can work and what I’m trying really an important part of the American ex- to explain to you about how to help control perience. And obviously, as I mentioned, costs and reduce medical errors. After health care is a really important issue for Katrina hit, there was hundreds of veterans small business. If you sat down with a round- that had to be relocated. What’s interesting table of small businesses, the first issue that is, is that the Veterans Department has al- comes to their mind is, ‘‘I can’t provide ready started this information technology health care for my people; how do you expect modernization. There are medical—elec- me to stay in business when health care costs tronic medical records for veterans. And so are driving us out?’’ Well, HSAs help a lot, when these poor folks got scattered around and I really urge American small businesses the country, the doctors and providers had to take a look at HSAs. They’re good for access to the electronic records of our vet- Wendy’s; they’ll be good for you as well. erans. Here’s another idea: One of the problems So if a person had a diabetes issue, up pops that small businesses have is that they enter on the screen the information, the latest test, into the market—they’re trying to provide the medicine being taken. It was an incred- traditional insurance without any risk pool ibly efficient way to make sure that the health behind them. If you’ve got three people care needs of our veterans were met during you’re trying to insure, it’s a heck of a lot this time of catastrophe. It helped people fill more expensive then if you’re trying to insure out the prescription drugs of our seniors 3,000 people or 10,000 people. In other without fear of error. It helped a local doc words, the more people that are in the risk say, ‘‘Well, gosh, look, you’ve been taking this pool, the lower the cost of traditional insur- medicine in the past; I’m going to prescribe ance is for a small business. And so I look it for you in the future, in order to make forward to working with the Congress to ex- sure that your health care needs continue.’’ pand what we call associated health plans. If you have your own medical record, your That’s kind of Washington-speak for allowing own electronic medical record, and you get small firms to band together to buy insurance sick in a remote part of our country, people at the same discounts that big companies get. instantly see your blood type, the issues that I’ll give you an example. You’ve got your- you’ve faced in the past, really important in- self a family restaurant here in Dublin, Ohio. formation about your—about who you are They’ve got 10 employees, and you try to go and what you’re going to need to help you. in the marketplace, and it’s prohibitively ex- And we’re on our way to providing a na- pensive. It seems to make sense to me that tionwide information network. It’s going to the family restaurant in Dublin ought to team help save maybe 25 percent of the costs in up with family restaurants all across the medical care. I told you that one of the im- country, so that the employees provide one portant things we’ve got to be worried about big risk pool to help lower the cost for small is how to deal with the cost-drivers, how to businesses. It is a practical way of helping come up with ways to, practically, with a small businesses that choose not to go into commonsense solution, deal with rising costs. HSAs to be able to buy traditional insurance One way is to modernize health care. An- in a cost-effective way. other way is to put consumers in charge of The bill passed the House of Representa- making decisions with transparency in pric- tives; it remains stuck in the United States ing. Senate. I urge the Senate—I urge the Senate, I want to talk a little bit about small busi- for the sake of affordable health care for nesses. Obviously, I’ve told you once and I small businesses and their employees, to pass really mean it, I understand how important associated health plans. small businesses are for the economy. I also I’ll talk about one other issue. I hope love the thought of America being a great you’re hanging in there with me here.

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[Laughter] And that issue is one that I re- without an ob-gyn. Now, that isn’t right. I member well when I was traveling your mean, these are good docs who are involved State, and that is the number of good docs with the precious—the delivery of precious that are getting driven out of practice be- life. And they’re getting sued—a lot. And cause of frivolous lawsuits. If you’re worried they’re leaving the practice, and it’s putting about affordabilty of health care and avail- a lot of women in a bind. Women are having ability of health care, then you have got to to travel miles. There’s nothing worse than be concerned about junk lawsuits. You just being—having uncertainty at this very impor- have to be, because a lot of docs and pro- tant time of life. viders, thinking they’re going to get sued, And we need to do something about it, practice what’s called defensive medicine. you know. I thought when I got to Wash- They order tests; they write prescriptions ington it was a State issue, Governor. Now that simply are not necessary so they can pro- when I see the effect on the Federal budget tect themselves from being sued in a court of $28 billion a year, it’s a national issue. It of law by a trial lawyer. That’s just a fact requires a national response. The House of of life. Representatives passed a good piece of legis- I find interesting a quote from an emer- lation. The trial lawyers have got it stuck in gency physician here. Here’s what this per- the United States Senate. For the sake of son said, ‘‘In an effort to reduce our mal- affordable health care and available health practice exposure’’—that means, in an effort care, for the sake of good health care for our not to get sued—‘‘we’re being encouraged women across the United States of America, to overtreat, overtest, and overadmit pa- we need medical liability reform this year. tients.’’ It has to be driving medical costs So that’s what I wanted to talk about— right out of the roof, and it is. It is. [laughter]—ways to make health care more In order to address the rising cost of health affordable and more available. I hope you can care, we’ve got to have a rational liability sys- get a sense of my philosophy that when you tem. If you’re harmed, you ought to have trust the American people to make wise deci- your day in court. There ought to be justice sions about their health care, positive things for you, if you’re injured. But we can write happen. Free markets and competition trans- laws that make sure that you get your due form our world. They have the power to claims without encouraging a plethora of transform our health care system. It’s impor- junk lawsuits that is costing you a lot of tant to recognize—Wendy’s recognized that money. when you introduced health savings ac- I’ll tell you how it’s costing you money. counts. The cost of defensive medicine—in other The agenda I just talked about, one I’m words, practicing medicine that is otherwise looking forward to working with both Demo- not necessary—is estimated to cost our soci- crats and Republicans in Congress, builds on ety $60 to $100 billion a year. It raises the the strengths of the private sector, recognizes cost of Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, what’s good, and let’s continue to build on and other health programs by an estimated that. It focuses on practical, market-based so- $28 billion a year. lutions. It offers the potential to deliver real You’re paying it. You’re working hard. improvements, genuine improvements in the You’re putting money into the—paying your lives of our fellow citizens. taxes, and $28 billion of those taxes goes to The heart of the reform is that you got pay for the cost of frivolous and junk lawsuits. to trust the people of the United States of As equal—more importantly, in my judg- America. And I do. And I do. I want to thank ment, actually, is that good docs are leaving you for giving me a chance to come by and the practice of medicine. visit with you. God bless you. God bless our I said something in the State of the Union, country. and it’s a startling statistic, if you really take NOTE: The President spoke at 12:13 p.m. at time to think about it, and that is there are Wendy’s International, Inc. In his remarks, he re- 1,500 counties in America without an ob-gyn. ferred to Jack Scheussler, chairman and chief ex- There are 15 counties in your State of Ohio ecutive officer, and Jeffrey Cava, executive vice

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president of human resources and administration, morning—now don’t make excuses for him. Wendy’s International, Inc.; Gov. Bob Taft of He’s doing a heck of a job—he really is— Ohio; Jon Husted, speaker, and Larry Flowers, and I hope you enjoy working for him. majority leader, Ohio State House of Representa- I am really pleased that Nancy Johnson is tives; Bill Harris, president, and Steve Stivers, sen- here. Madam Congresswoman, thank you for ator, Ohio State Senate; and Mayor Marilee Chinnici-Zuercher of Dublin, OH. The Office of coming. If you want to meet somebody in the Press Secretary also released a Spanish lan- Congress who knows something about health guage transcript of these remarks. care, talk to Nancy; she is a tireless advocate for making sure the health care systems are efficient and compassionate. And I really Remarks in a Discussion on Health want to thank you for coming. It’s a joy to Care Initiatives work with you on these big issues. February 16, 2006 I thank all the folks here at HHS. Thank you for working hard on behalf of our fellow The President. Thank you all. Thanks for citizens. You’ve got a tough and important the warm welcome. Thanks for coming. job, and you’re doing it well. One of the rea- We’re about to have a discussion about how sons why is because, you know, we’ve clearly this country can make sure our health care defined roles of Government—with the role system is available and affordable. And I want of Government in health care. And one of to thank our panelists for joining us. It’s an the roles is to make sure our seniors have interesting way to describe and discuss pol- a modern, reformed Medicare system. And icy; it’s a lot better than me just getting up I want to thank those of you who are working there and giving a speech—you don’t have on making sure that the Medicare system is to nod. [Laughter] explained to and available for seniors all Do you want to kick things off, Mark? across the country. Dr. Mark B. McClellan. I’d be glad to. We did the right thing when it came to I’d like to welcome all of you to the Depart- saying that if we’re going to have a program ment of Health and Human Services. As you for seniors, let’s make sure it works as good know, there are many people here who are as possible. And part of that meant modern- working day and night to protect the public izing the system so it included a prescription health, to help our health care system work drug benefit. It’s not easy to sign up millions better. of people in a quick period of time to a new We have the privilege of working with the program, and there were some glitches. The best health professionals in the world—doc- good thing about this Department, and the tors, nurses, others who have some great good thing about Mike and Mark is that they ideas about delivering better care and about have prioritized problems to be fixed and finding ways to do it with fewer complica- have gone around the country fixing them. tions and at a much lower cost. But in many Millions of folks—about 25 million people ways, our health care policies haven’t kept have signed up for the new Medicare benefit. up with what our health care system can do, I don’t know if you remember when we first and we’re going to spend some time talking had the discussions about the Medicare ben- about that today. efit, people said, ‘‘It will cost about $37 a So, Mr. President, we’re very pleased to month per beneficiary.’’ One of the inter- have you here today to lead this discussion esting reforms is not only making sure that of some new ideas for improving our health medicine was modernized but seniors actu- care. ally were given choices to make in the pro- The President. Thank you, Mark. Thanks, gram. And Mark’s done a fine job of encour- Mike Leavitt—where are you, Michael? aging providers to be in the markets. And Surely, he’s here? [Laughter] as a result of choice in the marketplace, the Dr. McClellan. He’s in Florida, Mr. average anticipated cost is $27 a month. President. In other words, giving people a decision The President. Oh, he’s in Florida. Okay. to make is an important part of helping to Surfing. [Laughter] Actually, I saw him this keep control of cost. We have a third-party

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system—third-party payer system. When the other day in the State of the Union that’s somebody else pays the bills, rarely do you got to startle you if you’re involved with the ask price or ask the cost of something. I health care delivery in America: 1,500 coun- mean, it seems kind of convenient, doesn’t ties don’t have an ob-gyn because lawsuits it? You pay your premium; you pay your have driven a lot of good docs out of those copay; you pay your deductible; and some- counties. And that’s not right. body pays the bills for you. And so we’ve got to get medical liability The problem with that is, is that there’s reform. The House has done a good job of no kind of market force. There’s no con- passing it. It’s stuck in the Senate. So for sumer advocacy for reasonable price when the sake of affordable and available health somebody else pays the bills. And one of the care, is to get a good, decent bill passed. reasons why we’re having inflation in health One other way to help control costs is to care is because there is no sense of market. interject market forces, as I mentioned. And We’re addressing the cost-drivers of health one way to do that is through what’s called care, and this discussion today is a part of health savings accounts. Health savings ac- helping to make sure health care is afford- counts are an innovative product that came, able. And as it becomes affordable, it be- really, to be as a result of the Medicare bill comes more available, by the way. that I was honored to sign. And they’re an A couple of ideas, other than the subject innovative account that combines savings on at hand, to make sure health care is afford- a tax-free basis with a catastrophic health able is—and we’ll talk a little bit about infor- care plan. We’ll have some consumers here mation technology. I know there’s a great ini- of health savings accounts that will describe tiative here at HHS to help bring the health how they work and whether or not they’re care industry into the modern era by imple- working worth a darn. menting information technology reforms. And for those of you working on the project, But the key thing in a health savings ac- thanks, and we take it very seriously at the count is, you actually put a patient in charge White House, and I know you take it seri- of his or her decisions, which we think is a ously here. vital aspect of making sure the health care Secondly, I want to thank those of you who system is not only modern, but a health care are working on community health centers. system in which costs are not running out One way to help control costs is to help peo- of control. And part of making sure con- ple who are poor and indigent get costs in sumers, if they have a decision to make, can places that are much more efficient at deliv- make rational decisions is for there to be ery of health than emergency rooms. And so transparency in pricing. In other words, how we’re committed to expansion of community can you make a rational decision unless you health centers. Again, thanks on that, Nancy, fully understand the pricing options or the for helping in Congress. They work. We’re quality options. When you go buy a car, you measuring results, and the results are good know, you’re able to shop and compare. And results. yet in health care, that’s just not happening Thirdly, lawsuits are running up the cost in America today. of medicine. The practice of—the defensive And so one of the—this discussion is cen- practice of medicine or the practice of defen- tered around encouraging consumer-based sive medicine—I’m a Texan—[laughter]—it health care systems and strengthening pri- costs about 28 billion a year when doctors vate medicine through transparency and overprescribe, to make sure that they kind pricing and quality. And I hope you find this of inoculate themselves against lawsuit. It as interesting a discussion as I will. runs up Federal budgets. It costs the econ- I’m going to start off with Dr. Gail omy about 600 to 100 billion—60 to 100 bil- Wilensky. Do you know anything about lion a year. health care? No. [Laughter] She knows a lot And so we’ve got to do something about about health care. You’ve been working the these junk lawsuits. I mean, they’re running health care industry for, what—tell us what good people out of practice. I said a statistic you do.

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[At this point, Dr. Gail Wilensky, senior fel- health care. But we can’t do this alone; we’ve low, Project HOPE, made brief remarks.] got a public/private health care system, so The President. Thank you for the lead- we need to work with health professionals, in. We spend a lot of money at the Federal with consumer groups, with business pur- level, and you would expect that if we’re sit- chasers, and with the health plans in this ting up here talking about transparency then country to get useful information out. We we ought to do something about it. I mean, started to do that through collaborative ef- the Federal Government is the largest pur- forts, like the Hospital Quality Alliance and chaser of health care—am I right—46 per- the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance. These cent of all health care dollars. are groups that include all of the different Dr. McClellan. That’s right. key stakeholders in our health care system The President. Okay. What are you going working together to make useful information to do about it? [Laughter] available on quality and cost. Dr. McClellan. Well, Mr. President, we Some of that’s happened already, but I are doing a lot about this already, as you think with the leadership from the President know. Before the Medicare drug benefit, and with the full backing of the Federal Gov- Medicare provided a drug discount card for ernment, we can move this effort along much millions of seniors to enable them to save more quickly and much more extensively to billions of dollars. And with that card, we get information out about satisfaction with made available information on discounted care; to get information out about outcomes drug prices for all the prescription drugs and of care and complications; and to get infor- all the pharmacies around the country. Sen- mation out about cost. And, Mr. President, iors use that information to keep prices we’re very pleased to be starting right now down. They shopped, and we saw during the a new program that will be piloted in six large course of this program, savings actually in- communities around the country, where all crease over time. We also saw lots of seniors these different groups—the health profes- switching to drugs that they found out about sionals, business groups, Government organi- that could meet their medical needs at a zations, including Medicare and the Agency much lower cost. for Health Care Research and Quality, and The President. One thing a person watch- health plans—are going to be working to- ing out there—what we’re talking about, for gether to make useful information available example, when it comes to putting informa- to consumers and health professionals in tion out on drugs, a brand name drug and these communities about the quality and a generic drug do the same thing, but there’s costs of their health care. And hopefully, a huge price differential. And what Mark is we’ll be able to move this project along very, saying is, is that we made, as a result of our very quickly. Government policies, the providers to pro- The President. Good. vide a shopping list, a comparison for people Dr. McClellan. We’re working. to get on the Internet and find out whether The President. Nice going. Yes, I know they can buy a drug cheaper or not. you are. You’re working hard. Mark also has Dr. McClellan. That’s right. And many been responsive to some of the issues of the people are saving 70 or 80 percent or more Medicare rollout. And they’ve been moving on their drug cost by switching to generics. hard and traveling around the State. And You can get this information on the Internet. thanks for responding to what’s going to end You can also get it by calling 1–800–MEDI- up being a really, really important program CARE. And we’re doing the same thing with for our seniors—let me say, a revitalized, im- the drug benefit. And that’s one reason the portant program for our seniors. It’s going drug benefit costs now are so much lower to make a big difference. Thanks for working than people expected, as you mentioned ear- so hard. lier. Robin Downey. What do you do, Robin? We’re trying to make more information Roberta ‘‘Robin’’ Downey. I’m head of available on hospital quality, on nursing product development for Aetna. home quality, on many other aspects of The President. Yes.

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Ms. Downey. And I was instrumental in Ms. Downey. We’re marrying that now. launching our HSA program. We’ve been We’re going to expand that pilot. It was so doing consumer-directed plans since 2002. successful, we’re going to expand it into more And so we’re the first national plan to offer locations in the fall of 2006, and we’re going an HSA in the health plan arena. to be marrying that information with the The President. Good move. I bet you’re quality information so the consumer can go really selling a lot of them. out and see what the unit cost is, what the Ms. Downey. Yes, we are. The adoption efficiency is, what the clinical quality is. And is higher in the HSA than it is in the HRA so they can look at the overall value. We’re now. It’s increasing, and I’m probably one pretty pumped about it. of Aetna’s first members in the HSA. The President. Well, I appreciate you The President. You and I both. We own doing it. It must be exciting to be on the an HSA. leading edge of an interesting innovation and Ms. Downey. Yes, yes, both in it. to a—into health care. It’s hard to believe The President. Let me ask you some- that ours is a market society in which people thing. Aetna, obviously, is a big health insur- are able to shop based upon price and quality ance company. Do you—obviously you’ve got in almost every aspect of our life, with the an opinion on transparency, otherwise you exception of health care. And it’s no wonder wouldn’t be sitting here—but give us from that we’re dealing with what appears to be your perspective, from the insurance com- ever-increasing costs. pany’s perspective, tell us what transparency You know, it’s really interesting, LASIK means to you and how best we can work to- surgery is a good example of a procedure that gether to implement the transparency. was really—was not a part of a third-party payer, just came to be. People could choose [Ms. Downey, vice president and head of it if they wanted to choose it, could pay for product development, Aetna, made brief re- it if they didn’t want to—would pay for it marks.] themselves if they chose to use it. And more The President. Good. And I presume doctors started offering LASIK surgery. there was resistance at first? There was more information about LASIK Ms. Downey. Not resistance; they wanted surgery, and the price came down dramati- to know why. I think physicians are won- cally over time, and the quality was increas- dering why the consumers need that kind of ing. And now LASIK surgery is eminently information. So they’re getting used to that. affordable for a lot of people, because the And then they were actually pretty helpful market actually functioned. And I think what when we were talking about how we were Robin is saying is that they’re trying to intro- going to display it. They were saying, make duce those same kind of forces in Cincinnati. it easy for the patients to understand, so Thanks for doing what you’re doing. I met they’re helping us take the medical termi- with your old boss today. Maybe he’s watch- nology, put it into layman’s terms. They ing out there. [Laughter] wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to create Ms. Downey. He talks to me just the way more work for them; were people going to you talk to Mark—‘‘just do it.’’ [Laughter] be calling their offices constantly. And that’s The President. A little bossy. [Laughter] what we want to do; we want to put it on Ms. Downey. But you get stuff done. the web site so they don’t have to constantly The President. Yes, that’s right. call. So we want to provide easy access. Dan Evans is the president and CEO of And so they were also concerned with, if Clarion Health Partners in Indianapolis, In- you put cost information there, and you don’t diana. Thanks for coming. You’re doing some have quality, then people will price shop on interesting things. He’s a hospital guy. cost alone, and they’re very afraid of that— Daniel F. Evans, Jr. I’m the CEO of an and they should be, because people should academic medical center, so we have both understand the—— a university and a hospital. We have 4,000 The President. So how do you handle peer review projects ongoing right now, in- that? cluding——

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The President. Tell everybody what a brought up to speed quickly, which is great. peer review project is. And I want to thank you for doing that. Information technology is going to help [Mr. Evans, president and chief executive of- change medicine in a constructive way, and ficer, Clarian Health Partners, Inc., made it does dovetail with price and equality. brief remarks.] Getting kind of adrift of what we’re talking The President. So how easy is it to estab- about here? I hope so. If not, we’ll go over lish a matrix, or a—information for con- to Jerry; she’ll help—[laughter]. Jerry, wel- sumers to be able to really accurately under- come. Where do you live? What do you do? stand? Jerry W. Henderson. Mr. President, I live [Mr. Evans made further remarks.] in Baltimore, Maryland. The President. Welcome. The President. We’re really talking about Ms. Henderson. And I am a nurse, and making sure each American has an electronic I’ve been in health care for over 30 years. medical record, over which he or she has got And for the last 9 years, I’ve had the respon- control of the privacy. An interesting—an- sibility of running an ambulatory surgery cen- other example was what happened—the Vet- ter in Baltimore. erans Administration, by the way, has imple- The President. Good. Called? mented electronic medical records. In other Ms. Henderson. The SurgiCenter of Bal- words, they’re using modern technology to timore. bring this important agency into the 21st cen- The President. Very good. And tell us, tury. A lot of files at your hospital still—prob- you know, the transparency issue—we had ably not your hospital but the typical hos- a little visit ahead of time, so it’s not the first pital—are handwritten. time I’ve seen her; she gave me a little hint Mr. Evans. Well, you know, what happens about what she was going to talk about. Go is, they may be electronic in the hospital, but ahead and share with people—small clinic, handwritten in the doctor’s office—— relatively small clinic, big hospital guy, small The President. Yes, and the doctors can’t clinic person. write anyways. [Laughter] Mr. Evans. Well, the pen is a very dan- [Ms. Henderson, executive director, gerous thing. SurgiCenter of Baltimore, made brief re- The President. Yes, it is. marks.] Mr. Evans. Yes, as you well know. [Laugh- ter] The President. Right. And the reason why The President. And so the idea is to mod- they can’t yet is because you happen to be ernize doctors’ offices and hospitals and pro- on the leading edge of what is an important viders through information technology. And reform. so the Veterans Department has done this. Ms. Henderson. I think so. In other words, each veteran has got an elec- The President. Yes, it is. Well, so do the tronic medical record. And so when Katrina patients, more importantly. And thank you hit, a lot of veterans were scattered, and they for sharing that with us. were just displaced. And you can imagine the You happen to have a patient here. trauma to begin with, and the trauma is com- Ms. Henderson. I do. pounded if you’re worried about your record The President. You’ve known Gail be- being lost somewhere, your medical record. fore? And fortunately, because the veterans at Ms. Henderson. Gail Zanelotti was a pa- the Department had already acted, these tient at our center, and I think she’ll tell you medical records went with the patient, and that probably it was a more convenient and a lot of veterans got instant help. And so a comfortable and patient—— doc could, you know, kind of download their The President. You’re not putting words record, take a look at what was prescribed in her mouth are you? [Laughter] before, take a look at other procedures, and Ms. Henderson. No, no. But I bet she boom, the medicine and the help was would tell you that. [Laughter]

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Gail Zanelotti. It was more convenient mean—in other words, out there looking for and comfortable. [Laughter] the procedure that fits their needs at the The President. It was? Very good. right cost and the right price. [Laughter] It almost doesn’t matter if we have trans- Ms. Henderson. See? [Laughter] parency if consumers, however, are not in The President. You were diagnosed with a position to make decisions. In other words, what? if somebody is making the decision for you, Ms. Zanelotti. With bilateral breast can- transparency only matters to the decider. cer in October. And I had several procedures And so Bruce is with us today—Bruce performed at the Surgical Center of Balti- Goodwin. He’s an HSA owner. Bruce, de- more. And they treated me as if I were the scribe HSAs—well, first of all, tell us what main event. That’s how I felt—socially, emo- you do. tionally, physically. The whole gamut was William ‘‘Bruce’’ Goodwin. My com- covered. And I chose the surgeon first for quality and then went on to find the pricing pany manufactures computer plate tech- and everything else through them, which nology for the graphic arts printing business. they were very transparent about. It was a The President. How many employees? very positive experience. And I’m still in Mr. Goodwin. We have 20 employees. communication with them because—through We’re a small company. the reconstructive process. And I would do The President. Yes. By the way, two- it the same way again. thirds of new jobs in America are created The President. And so how does—I by small businesses. And if a small business mean, so you’re the consumer. You walk in, can’t afford health care, it’s pretty likely obviously, pretty well traumatized to a cer- they’re not going to be aggressive in expand- tain extent. You’ve got this horrible disease ing. And I presume you have some health that’s attacked you. And you come to them, care issues. and they—and you’re asking what questions? Mr. Goodwin. Well, I’m here as an em- Ms. Zanelotti. I saw the surgeon that ployer who is concerned about health care night, and I think we were there at 10:30 costs for sure, and a strong advocate of health p.m. at night. savings accounts. I’m a firm believer that for The President. Oh, great. employers, health savings accounts is prob- Ms. Zanelotti. I mean, it’s amazing how ably the best weapon we’ve got in the battle dedicated some of these doctors are. And of these rapidly escalating health care costs. then they take you through the process of And I’m very much hopeful, and I appreciate different diagnostic steps that you have to very much your leadership in trying to help take. And really, you see how curable things strengthen the health savings accounts. can be if it’s caught early. And I was very The President. Yes, we’ll talk about it in lucky to be able to be faced with step-by- a minute. So tell people what a health savings step approach to get back to my journey of account is. This is kind of a foreign language full health. to everybody but the 3 million people who The President. Good job. Congratula- own one. It’s just a new product. It’s just tions. beginning to happen. Ms. Zanelotti. Thank you. The President. You’ve got that sparkle in [Mr. Goodwin, president, Glunz and Jensen, your eye, you know. [Laughter] Inc., made brief remarks.] Ms. Zanelotti. Thank you. Very lucky. The President. And so—no, I appreciate The President. An insurance plan with a it. It’s an interesting—the transparency re- health savings account is a high-deductible form is going to take place in both large enti- catastrophic plan coupled with a tax-free ties and smaller entities, because consumers health savings account to pay routine medical shouldn’t be restricted to shopping only in costs up to the deductible. That’s the way a large entity or a small entity. ‘‘Shopping’’ they’re structured now. Many employees— isn’t the right word, but you know what I I was at Wendy’s yesterday; Wendy’s has now

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got 9,000 employees using health savings ac- entity; it goes to the consumer. It’s a new counts. The company pays for part of the pre- concept that’s just coming in to be. mium, as well as the contribution into the In order for it to work, there has to be cash account to be paid by the customer for transparency. How can you expect somebody routine medical expenses. to make rational decisions in the marketplace If you don’t spend all your money in your if they don’t see price and quality? It’s going cash account, you can save it tax-free, and to be a very important—what we’re talking roll it over to the next year, and then you here is a very important reform to really fit contribute again. Wendy’s premiums rose into a—making sure the private medicine as- this year, I think, at less than 2 percent— pect of our medical system remains the cen- maybe even less than 1 percent, if I’m not ter of medicine. mistaken. And they were increasing at dou- There’s a debate here in Washington about ble-digit rates—I hope I’m not exag- who best to make decisions. Some up here gerating—they were going up quite dramati- believe the Federal Government should be cally, let me put it to you that way. And now making decisions on behalf of people. I be- their premiums were significantly lower. And lieve that consumers should be encouraged the savings enabled them to put additional to make decisions on behalf of themselves. money into their employees’ accounts, addi- And health savings accounts and trans- tional contributions. parency go hand in hand. It’s an interesting concept, because all of There are some things we need Congress a sudden, it puts an individual in charge of to do to make health savings accounts work health care decisions. There’s an incentive, even better than they are. One is to make by the way, for people to make rational sure that one’s contributions into the health choices about what they consume—like, if savings account is—can be—will be equal to you don’t smoke and drink, it’s more likely the deductible, plus any copays that may have you’ll stay healthy and not spend money in to be made. In other words, we shouldn’t your account. If you exercise—I’d strongly cap the contribution, cash contribution at urge mountain biking—[laughter]—it helps where it is; it needs to be raised. you stay healthy. And by staying healthy, you Secondly, we need to make sure the Tax actually save money. There’s a remuneration Code treats employees in large companies for good choice. and employees in small companies equally And what Bruce is saying is that it’s helped when it comes to purchasing health savings his business afford health care. It’s helped accounts. And thirdly, and a key component a lot of small businesses. If you’re a small- of making sure health savings accounts business owner, please look into health sav- works, that addresses one of the real con- ings accounts for the good of your employees. cerns in our society, and that is people chang- Interestingly enough, about a third of ing jobs but fearful of losing health care as those who’ve purchased the new health sav- they do change jobs, is to make sure health ings accounts were uninsured. Many of the savings accounts are portable in all aspects, uninsured in America are young people, kind a health care plan that encompasses health of the bulletproof syndrome—you’re never savings accounts. Today, the rules enable one going to get sick, so therefore, why buy insur- to take with them the cash balances in their ance. Now, there’s an incentive to buy insur- health savings accounts but not the insurance ance because it means you can save tax-free. in their health savings accounts. In order to And so Bruce has used them—and he re- make these plans truly portable, so as to ports that he’s able to better control his costs, bring peace of mind to people, we’ve got to which is really important for the small-busi- make sure that health savings accounts are ness sector. And it’s also important for the genuinely portable accounts. large-business sector to say to their employ- I look forward to working with Congress ees, ‘‘Here is something that’s really bene- to strengthen, not weaken, but strengthen ficial for you and your families because when these very important products that puts the you save the money, it’s your money.’’ Sav- doctor and the patient in the center of the ings in health care doesn’t go to a third party health care decision. Today we’ve heard

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some interesting, innovative ideas that are President Uribe. President Bush, this taking place from the insurance industry to meeting has been very constructive, as it al- the providers to the Federal Government. ways is whenever we meet. I want to thank And we will continue to implement trans- you; I want to thank the Government; and parency. And it’s just the beginning. And I I want to thank the Congress and the people predict that when this—as this society be- of the United States for their permanent in- comes more transparent, as the consumers terest in Colombia. have more choice to make, you’ll see better Our peoples have a relationship that is his- cost containment. And as we’re able to con- toric, and it’s also a relationship that is close. tain costs, we achieve some great national ob- We also have a convergence, a convergence jectives: One is to make sure health care is that is based on democratic values and the affordable, and two, make sure it’s available. belief that democracy needs security in order I want to thank you all for coming to join to build those values. us. It was an interesting discussion. Appre- We have been negotiating an FTA for the ciate your time. God bless. last 23 months. All of us have come to this negotiation in good faith, and I’m sure that NOTE: The President spoke at 1:18 p.m. in the we will see a conclusion. This meeting has Great Hall at the U.S. Department of Health and been good for democracy, and it has been Human Services. good for the interests of our people, as well as for our shared war on terror and our war against the drugs that finance that terror. Remarks Following Discussions With Thank you. President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia President Bush. I understood you. and an Exchange With Reporters [Laughter] February 16, 2006 President Uribe. Thank you. President Bush. Nedra [Nedra Pickler, President Bush. Thank you all for com- Associated Press]. ing. The President and I will make a state- ment. We’ll be glad to take two questions Vice President’s Hunting Accident per side. Q. Yes, Mr. President, do you feel it was Mr. President, bienvenidos. I’m glad appropriate that the Vice President didn’t re- you’re here. veal his shooting accident until the next day, First of all, the President and I are friends, and through a private citizen? And do you and we are personal friends, and we’re think it was okay that he didn’t talk to you friends of freedom as well. Every time I visit about it, personally, until Monday? with President Uribe, I am impressed by his President Bush. I thought the Vice Presi- strength of character and his belief in the dent handled the issue just fine. He went future of his country. Mr. President, I’m through—and I thought his explanation yes- proud that you’re here. I want to thank you terday was a powerful explanation. This is a for the wide-ranging discussions we have man who likes the outdoors, and he likes to had. hunt. And he heard a bird flush, and he The President, of course, has got trade on turned and pulled the trigger and saw his his mind. I’ve explained to him very carefully friend get wounded. And it was a deeply trau- that we are interested in a trade agreement matic moment for him, and obviously for that we will negotiate in good faith. The the—it was a tragic moment for Harry agreement must be good for the people of Whittington. Colombia, as well as the people of the United And so I thought his explanation yesterday States. And I assured him that our trade ne- was a very strong and powerful explanation, gotiators will be fair in our approach. and I’m satisfied with the explanation he So, Mr. President, thank you for your gave. strength of character, and thank you for your Q. But are you satisfied about the timing? friendship. And welcome here to the Oval President Bush. I’m satisfied with the ex- Office. planation he gave.

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Mr. President is about to ask somebody concern is for Harry, and I know the Vice to ask a question. President feels the same way.

Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement Q. Mr. President, is there going to be a Q. President Bush, do you think the nego- free trade agreement with Colombia or not? tiators are making the link between the fact President Bush. Espero que si. that it’s important to prove legal economy Q. Pronto? Soon? as a way to fight against terror and illegal President Bush. Vamos a ver. I spent drugs? time visiting with the President about the President Bush. That’s a great question. progress on negotiations. Free trade agree- I believe that when we work together in a ments are never easy to negotiate—es muy free trade, it strengthens markets and the ap- dificile—and because—there’s interests. He preciation for open markets, whether it be represents the people of your country very in Colombia or here at home. I believe free well. He’s a good negotiator, as is his trade commerce between nations will enable coun- minister. They’re strong in representing the tries—people in countries to realize their full interests of the people, whether they be potential. I think one of the things that’s very farmers or manufacturers. And our people important—I know the President is dedi- are good, strong negotiators, too. cated on—is a strategy on the one hand that I’m very hopeful. I’m very hopeful we says, he will deal harshly with those who deal reach a conclusion. Trade agreements are in drugs. But he also recognizes there needs never easy, and that’s what’s very important to be economic activity to compete. to understand. But in my judgment—and by We’ve had a lot of discussions about crop the way, I, too, have to convince the Amer- ican people of the importance of trade agree- substitution and microloans for people to be ments—in my judgment an agreement with able to develop ways to make a living that this important country, Colombia, will be a is distinct from and different from being in- very important agreement. And so we’re volved in the drug trade. working hard. And so absolutely we understand the con- Steve [Steve Holland, Reuters]. nection between trade of legal products in a free way between nations as a way to com- pete against illegal activities. I appreciate the Vice President’s Hunting Accident President’s leadership on working hard to Q. Some Democrats say that this shooting make sure that Colombia is rid of episode has contributed to a perception of narcotrafficking. It’s a great country, with a White House secrecy. What do you say to wonderful history. And the determination to that, sir? rid the country of narcotrafficking will go President Bush. I think people are mak- down as a very important part of your na- ing the wrong conclusion about a tragic acci- tion’s history, and we’ll continue to say that dent. The Vice President was involved in a Colombia is a great country with great enter- terrible accident, and it profoundly affected prise and great hope and great opportunity. him. Yesterday when he was here in the Oval So thank you for coming. Adios. Office, I saw the deep concern he had about a person who he wounded. And he—again, I thought yesterday’s explanation was a very NOTE: The President spoke at 4:16 p.m. in the strong and important explanation to make to Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, the American people. he referred to Harry Whittington, chairman, Texas Funeral Service Commission, who was in- And now our concerns are directed toward jured on February 11 while hunting with the Vice the recovery of our friend. I knew Harry President on a ranch in Corpus Christi, TX; and Whittington when I was the Governor of Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism Texas, down there in Austin. He’s a fine man. Jorge Humberto Botero of Colombia. President He’s been involved in our State’s politics for Uribe spoke in Spanish, and his remarks were a long period of time. And, you know, my translated by an interpreter.

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Letter to the Speaker of the House of The request includes bonuses and incen- Representatives Transmitting a tive pay to properly compensate American Request for Fiscal Year 2006 troops for the sacrifices they make in defense Supplemental Appropriations for of freedom. It also includes funds to cover Ongoing Military and Intelligence enhanced benefits for survivors of all military members and provides for newly authorized Operations and Selected Other benefits for those injured in combat. International Activities The request also provides funds for the ex- February 16, 2006 traordinary security and operating costs asso- ciated with supporting U.S. diplomatic activ- Dear Mr. Speaker: ity in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, I am submitting a request for Fiscal The request includes funds to help create Year 2006 supplemental appropriations of political and economic stability in post-con- $72.4 billion for ongoing military and intel- flict areas, help Iraqis protect and sustain ligence operations in support of Operation their infrastructure, and build Iraqi capacity Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Free- at the national and provincial levels for bet- dom, and selected other international activi- ter, more responsive, and transparent gov- ties. These funds support U.S. Armed Forces ernance. The request also supports the suc- and Coalition partners as we advance democ- cessful Commander’s Emergency Response racy, fight the terrorists and insurgents, and program that enables military commanders train and equip Iraqi security forces so that to respond to urgent, small-scale, humani- they can defend their sovereignty and free- tarian relief and reconstruction needs in their dom. Already more than 35 Iraqi battalions area of responsibility. These counter-insur- have assumed control of their own areas of gency and stabilization activities help build responsibility. This request provides the re- civilian capabilities to ensure the transition sources necessary to continue that effort so to greater Iraqi self-reliance. Coupling in- the Coalition can continue to hand over con- creased civilian capacity with increased mili- trol of more territory to Iraqi forces. tary capacity is essential to sustained progress In Afghanistan, our Armed Forces con- in all realms—security, political, and eco- tinue to track down terrorists, help the Af- nomic—and is essential to neutralizing the ghan people rebuild their country, and train insurgents and defeating the terrorists. and equip Afghan security forces so that Af- Finally, the supplemental requests funds ghanistan may continue to take control of its for urgent, unanticipated needs to help re- democratic future. Our coalition has trained lieve human suffering associated with a num- many thousands of Afghan soldiers and po- ber of humanitarian crises, including Sudan lice. These forces are risking their lives to and other parts of Africa, assistance for refu- fight our common enemy. This request pro- gees, and the costs of humanitarian relief and vides the resources necessary to continue the reconstruction efforts in response to the dev- train and equip effort so Afghan forces can astating earthquake in Pakistan. The request eventually provide for the security of their also includes funding to address urgent de- own citizens. mocracy-promotion activities in Iran. The request includes funds to confront the I hereby designate the specific proposals threat from Improvised Explosive Devices in the amounts requested herein as emer- and to improve the protection of our forces. gency requirements. This request reflects ur- In addition, the request addresses the need gent and essential requirements. I ask the for substantial investment to repair or re- Congress to appropriate the funds as re- place equipment worn out or lost in military quested and promptly send the bill to me operations. It also provides additional fund- for signature. The details of the request are ing to cover the costs of restructuring the set forth in the enclosed letter from the Di- Army and Marine Corps into more agile, self- rector of the Office of Management and sustaining units that provide increased com- Budget. bat effectiveness critical to winning the Glob- Sincerely, al War on Terror. George W. Bush

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Letter to the Speaker of the House of Remarks on the War on Terror and a Representatives Transmitting a Question-and-Answer Session in Request for Additional Funds To Tampa, Florida Support Recovery Efforts in the Gulf February 17, 2006 Coast February 16, 2006 The President. Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for the warm weather. [Laughter] It’s Dear Mr. Speaker: nice to be back here. I just came from MacDill, where I was talking to General Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst Abizaid and General Brown, and one of the natural disasters in our Nation’s history. things that’s clear is folks there at MacDill Katrina devastated an area roughly the size really do appreciate the support that the citi- of Great Britain. This devastation has re- zens of the communities of Tampa and St. quired an unprecedented response by Fed- Pete and the surrounding area provide them. eral, State, and local governments, as well So I want to thank you all very much for as the private sector. So far, the Federal Gov- being—[applause]. ernment has committed more than $87 bil- I’d like to share some thoughts with you lion in spending and $8 billion in tax relief and then answer questions as time allows, if for the people of the Gulf Coast and New you’ve got any. First, I send Laura’s greet- Orleans. ings. She’s doing great, by the way. She’s a To provide additional resources to assist fantastic First Lady and—[applause]. She’s the region in its recovery, I ask the Congress obviously got to be a woman of enormous patience. [Laughter] to consider the enclosed requests, totaling $19.8 billion. This request includes critical I appreciate Congressmen Adam Putnam, Bill Young, Mike Bilirakis, and Katherine funding to: replenish the Department of Harris for being here today. Oh, there they Homeland Security’s Disaster Relief Fund in are, yes. Proud to give them a ride on Air support of ongoing response efforts; support Force One. [Laughter] Some of them aren’t the Small Business Administration’s Disaster going back, by the way. [Laughter] Mark Loan program; provide funding for the Com- Kennedy—is Mark here with us, from Min- munity Development Block Grant program nesota? I think he was going to drop by— to support Louisiana’s flood mitigation plans; he supposedly was going to be here. You achieve my commitment through the Corps don’t know him because he’s from Min- of Engineers for stronger and better levee nesota, but I do, and he’s a fine guy. [Laugh- protection for New Orleans; and continue re- ter] building of the region’s Federal infrastruc- I want to thank my buddy Mel Sembler, ture. Ambassador Sembler, who represented our I urge the Congress to act expeditiously country so well, once in Australia under 41, on this request to ensure that the Federal and then to Italy under 43—and Betty. I response and recovery efforts continue unin- want to thank the Chambers of both Tampa terrupted. I designate this proposal in the and St. Pete. I want to thank the mayors from amount requested herein as an emergency Tampa and St. Pete—Mayor Iorio and Mayor requirement. Baker are with us. Thank you both for com- ing. Appreciate you being here. The details of this request are set forth I didn’t mean to take you away from your in the enclosed letter from the Director of work. Any excuse is a good one on Friday, the Office of Management and Budget. right? [Laughter] So long as I keep the speech short. I want to thank members of Sincerely, the statehouse who are here. I want to thank you all for letting us use this beautiful facility. George W. Bush And thank you for coming.

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First of all, the economy is in good shape; don’t like us. And so the best way to deal it’s growing. I guess that’s an easy thing to with that is to continue to foster new tech- say in the State of Florida, when the unem- nologies because of research and develop- ployment rate is 3.3 percent. Pretty amazing, ment that will enable us to use different fuels isn’t it? I’m sure the Governor is going to in our cars, for example. try to take credit for it, you know. [Laughter] There’s Kennedy right there. Good to see I’m not going to because the role of Govern- you, Kennedy. The reason I thought of him ment is to create an environment where the is because he’s from a part of the world that’s entrepreneurs can flourish and small busi- growing a lot of crops that can be converted nesses can grow. into energy. We’re close. We’re close to tech- And the fundamental question facing this nological breakthroughs that will enable us country of ours is, how do we keep ourselves to convert wood chips and saw grass. We al- to be the economic leader of the world? It’s ready convert sugar, corn, and soy into fuel. really an interesting question. You know, in And think about that. If this technology spite of the good economic numbers—4.7 comes true, which we believe it will, then percent unemployment around the country; pretty soon a President is going to say, our economy growing at over 3 percent, in ‘‘We’re growing a lot of crops, and we’re less the face of hurricanes as well as high gas dependent on Middle Eastern oil.’’ There are prices; homeownership is an alltime high; 4.5 million cars today that are flex-fuel cars small businesses are growing. In spite of all that can either run on gasoline or ethanol. that, there’s a certain sense of uncertainty. In other words, the technology is available People are worried. They’re worried because inside the automobile. And it’s coming. they’re changing jobs a lot. They’re worried And we’re making some great break- because of competition from India and throughs on battery technology. Next week China. There’s a certain sense of uncertainty. I’m going to travel around the country going And so we have a choice to make about to some of the most innovative places around our economy: Do we retreat in the face of our country that are providing new tech- uncertainty, or do we lead? And I will be nologies to enable us to become less depend- working with the Congress, Members from ent on oil, which will keep us a leader in both political parties, to be the leader of the the world. world. And here’s some ideas. One, keep Another thing we need to do is to make taxes low. We can’t be the economic leader sure that our health care system is modern. of the world if we run up your taxes, and I want to talk real quick about Medicare so we’re going to keep them low. here. First of all, I’m aware there’s a lot of And you’ll hear a debate in Washington, seniors in this State that rely upon Medicare. DC, that says, ‘‘Well, we’ve got to run up The Federal Government made a commit- your taxes to balance the budget.’’ That’s not ment to the seniors around the United States, the way it works in Washington. They will starting with Lyndon Baines Johnson, that we run up your taxes, and they’ll figure out new would provide good health care to the sen- ways to spend money. The best way to bal- iors. And when I got to Washington, I found ance the budget is to keep the taxes low and that we were not providing modern medi- be wise about how we spend your money. cine. I mean, we would provide the money That’s how we’re going to balance the budg- for ulcer surgery in old Medicare, but not et. the prescription drugs necessary to prevent In order for us to be competitive and lead the ulcer from happening in the first place. in the world, we’ve got to get off of Middle And that didn’t seem to make sense to me. Eastern oil. I know it shocks some of you It’s an old, centralized system that was not to hear a Texan say, ‘‘We’re addicted to oil.’’ modern and was not fulfilling the promise And we are, and it’s a problem. It’s a prob- we made. lem. It’s a national security problem, and it’s And so I worked with Congress—Repub- an economic security problem to be reliant licans and Democrats—to get a new bill out upon oil from parts of the world that may of Congress that said, ‘‘We’re going to pro- be unstable or parts of the world that simply vide a prescription drug benefit, and as we

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do, we’re going to give seniors more choices and—mathematics, particularly in junior and more options from which to choose.’’ high. And so we need to apply that same About 25 million seniors have signed up standard. We’ll measure in junior high, and for this new plan since January 1st. That’s if you need help, we’ll provide it for you. a lot of folks in a quick period of time. And And the reason why is, the jobs of the 21st needless to say, when you make that kind century are going to require mastery in math of transition to a modern system, there’s and science and engineering. And if we don’t going to be some glitches. And our job is make—and if we don’t educate our kids, the to fix those glitches. And that’s what the De- jobs are going to go elsewhere, whether we partment of Health and Human Services like it or not. So to make sure America re- under Mike Leavitt is doing. And it’s impor- mains the leader in the world, we’re going tant for our seniors to take advantage of this to stay on the leading edge of research and new program. Call 1–800–Medicare. Or if development, and educate the young sci- you’ve got a mom or a dad who’s eligible entists of tomorrow, today. for Medicare, sit down with them and explain And so, look, my attitude about the future the new benefit. It is a really good deal for is this, when it comes to the economy, and America’s seniors. when it comes to foreign policy: We To make sure that health care works, we’ll shouldn’t fear it; let’s shape the future. Let’s continue to take care of the poor. In other be the leader tomorrow that we are today. words, the Government has made a commit- Now, we’re living in historic times when ment to the elderly and the poor, but the you think about this world we’re in. It is a Government has also got to understand, the time of challenge, and it’s a time of oppor- best medicine is private medicine. And we tunity. We’ve got the challenge to protect the should not get in between the doctors and American people. My most important duty the patients in America. is to protect you from harm. And we have Finally, I want to spend a little time on an opportunity to lay the foundation of peace education, briefly. First of all, No Child Left for generations to come. Behind Act is working. It’s a piece of legisla- I make a lot of decisions. My buddies in tion that says, ‘‘We’re going to raise the Texas, when they show up to Washington, standards for every child, and we’re going to after they get over the initial surprise that measure to make sure children are meeting I’m still there—[laughter]—or got there in those standards.’’ Can you imagine—you the first place—[laughter]—say, ‘‘Like, might remember the old—well, I’ll tell you. what’s it like, you know? What is the job de- When I was Governor of Texas, we had a scription? What’s it like to be President?’’ system that didn’t measure right early on. And the best way to answer it is, I make a And guess what happened? We just shuffled lot of decisions. And part of the reason’s— kids through the system who couldn’t read, my thinking was shaped on September the and we found out too late. And that is a ter- 11th, let me put it to you that way. And I rible system. It lets people down. And we’re think it’s important for you to understand spending a lot of your money. It seems like how the President thinks and why I make to me, it makes sense to say, when we spend decisions I make, particularly decisions relat- your money, we ought to insist upon results. ing to war and peace. Results are good for the taxpayers; more im- I knew we’re at war when they attacked portantly, they’re good for the students. So us. As a matter of fact, I was down here in now we measure early, before it’s too late, Florida. It didn’t take long to figure out what and we’re correcting problems, before was going on. And I vowed that day that I they’re too late. And our kids are learning would not rest, so long as I was the President, to read. in protecting the people. So a lot of my deci- And we need to apply that same rigor to sionmaking is based upon the attack. And I children in math and science, particularly in know we’re at war, see—I knew it then, and junior high. Fourth grade tests, our kids are the enemy has, unfortunately, proved me doing fine compared to other countries. But right because they continue to attack. In there’s a big drop-off when it comes to math order to win the war against the enemy,

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you’ve got to understand the nature of the when we felt pretty comfortable here in enemy. America. We could see a threat overseas, but First of all, these people are coldblooded oceans made it pretty clear that—to a lot of killers, people who will kill the innocent in folks—that nothing would happen, you know. order to achieve a tactical objective and a September 11th came along and made it strategic objective. They have no conscience. clear that we are vulnerable, that the enemy You can’t negotiate with these people. You can hit us if they want to. cannot reason with them. You must bring And therefore, when you see a threat, them to justice. you’ve got to deal with it. You can’t take Secondly, they have an ideology; they be- things for granted anymore. The best way to lieve in something. The best way to describe deal with this enemy is to defeat them over- what they believe in is to think about what seas so we don’t have to face them here at life was like in Afghanistan under the home, and to stay on the hunt. And that’s Taliban. These were people that saw to it what we’re doing. that young girls didn’t get educated. If you And we’ve got a coalition of countries. I didn’t agree with their view of religion, you spent a lot of time reminding people about were whipped in the public square. They tol- the nature of the war. Listen, the tendency erated no dissent, no different point of for folks is to say, ‘‘Well, this really isn’t a view—tearing down the—destroying the cul- war.’’ I can understand that. Who wants to ture from the past. They had no sense of walk around thinking there’s a war about to history other than their dim view of history. hit us. I mean, that’s my job to worry about That’s what they think. it, not yours. How can you have an economy And they have made it clear their objec- recover from a recession if people are afraid tives. You probably have read some of to risk capital because they’re worried about Zawahiri’s writings, admonitions to his fellow thinking something is going to happen? And fighters. They’ve made it clear that they be- the same thing happens overseas. People lieve the United States is soft and weak and kind of want to slip to the comfortable. They that they can shake our will. They’ve made don’t believe it’s a war, some of them, and it clear that it’s just a matter of time before I understand that. And so we spend a lot we vacate parts of the world which they can of time reminding people that we’ve got to then occupy in order to be able to plan, plot work together because the enemy can’t stand attacks against the United States of America. what we stand for, and that’s freedom. They They have made it clear they’re interested just hate freedom. And so we’ve got a good in weapons of mass destruction. In other coalition, and we’re on the hunt. We’re keep- words, they’ve laid out a strategy, you know, ing the pressure on them. It’s hard to plot for the world to see. and plan and execute attacks when you’re on And my job is to take that strategy seri- the run. ously. My job is to see the world the way And so the first step of our strategy is de- it is, not the way some would hope it would feat them there so we don’t to have to face be. If 9/11 affected our thinking, then we’ve them here. And we’ve got some great special got to make sure when the enemy speaks, forces. I met the special forces command guy we take every single sentence that they say here—and there’s great intelligence officers seriously and deal with it. And that’s what and wonderful coalition folks. We’re cutting we’re doing. off their money. It makes it kind of hard to So I want to share some of the strategy operate when you can’t get your bank ac- in winning this war on terror. Make no mis- counts full of money in order to—we’re just take about it: We’re going to win the war doing a lot of stuff. And it’s important for on terror. We’ll protect the American people. citizens to know that there’s a constant, con- First, when we see threats, we’ve got to stant pressure. I think about it every day. deal with them. When I was growing up in And we’re making progress. Khalid Sheikh west Texas, oceans protected us. You might Mohammed, September the 11th plotter- remember some of those days. Old Mayor planner, is incarcerated; his successor Martinez, I know he remembers those days brought to justice. Slowly but surely, we’re

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finding them where they hide, and they know put on there by previous Presidents. He was we’re on their trail. firing at our pilots. He had invaded countries. Secondly, we got to deny them safe haven. He was a threat. And the world spoke with These people can’t operate without safe one voice and said, ‘‘Disclose, disarm, or face haven. It’s an interesting war we’re in. It’s serious consequences.’’ And when the United totally different from what we’re used to be- States says something, it must mean it. And cause we’re not facing nation-states; we’re we said, ‘‘Disclose, or face serious con- dealing with an enemy that is international sequences.’’ And when he wouldn’t, he faced in nature, that hides in states. serious consequences. Removing Saddam When the President says something like, Hussein has made America safer and the ‘‘If you harbor a terrorist, you’re equally as world a better place. guilty as the terrorist,’’ those words mean And we have a plan to achieve victory. Vic- nothing unless you act upon them. And I said tory is a state, a democracy that can sustain that to the people of Afghanistan—the itself and defend itself and join America in Taliban. They didn’t listen, and so we acted. fighting the war on terror. That’s the goal And removing the Taliban—is a clear signal of victory. That’s the definition of victory. that we won’t tolerate safe haven. In other First, part of our strategy is a political strat- words, if you harbor the terrorist, you’re just egy. I try to tell people how I make decisions. as guilty as the murderers. And that’s a clear And part of making good decisions is, you’ve signal that the United States must continue got to believe something. You have a belief to send in order to win the war on terror. system that, by the way, can’t alter because We saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. Obvi- of politics or polls or focus groups or what ously, this issue is one that has caused a lot somebody wants you to think. And I believe of people to wonder about certain aspects, that freedom is universal. I believe that deep caused me to wonder about the capacity of in everybody’s soul is the desire to be free. our intelligence services to provide good in- That’s what I believe. I don’t believe freedom telligence. And that’s why we’re constantly or liberty is confined here to Methodists working to reform the intelligence services, from Texas. I believe everybody wants to be to make sure we get the best intelligence, free—white, black, brown, Muslim, Jew, because I thought there would be weapons Christian, agnostic. I believe there is a deep of mass destruction, and so did everybody desire for people to be free. else in the world, and so did people in the And if you believe that, then you have faith United States Congress from both political in people demanding freedom, if given a parties—thought that there would be weap- chance. And the Iraqis proved that theory ons of mass destruction. right. Eleven million people went to the polls The United Nations and the United Na- in the face of unbelievable terror, terrorist tions Security Council thought there would threats, and said, ‘‘I want to be free; let me be weapons of mass destruction. After all, vote; let me decide my future.’’ And so on they passed a unanimous resolution that said, the political front, they’re making progress ‘‘Disclose, disarm, or face serious con- because of the courage of the Iraqis. sequences.’’ In other words, we worked the And now the task at hand is to work with diplomatic front. those who won votes in the new Parliament And so when Saddam Hussein chose to set up a unity Government; one that is— war—and believe me, he made the choice. can help deal with the grievances of the past; The hardest thing for the President of the one that unites under the fabric of democ- United States to do is commit troops into racy. And that’s what we’re doing. I talked combat. It’s the last option, the very last op- to the Ambassador, Zal Khalilzad, there yes- tion. Except September the 11th taught terday. He’s spent a lot of time working with me—and September the 11th taught me that making our position known that we want the we’ve got to take threats seriously. And the Government to be a unified government. world saw a threat. This man was harboring Secondly, we’re helping the country re- terrorists. He was on the state sponsor of ter- build itself after years of neglect, so that peo- rorists list. I didn’t put him on there; he was ple can see the benefits of democracy. And

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we started off initially with, kind of, these of folks, that are capable of taking the fight grand projects. We got the Congress to ap- nearly on their own. The training mission is propriate money, and we tried to build some working. great electricity-type renovations. And the So on the security side, we’re on the hunt. enemy kept blowing them up, and so we’ve We’re after Zarqawi. See, he wants us to altered our strategy. One of the things that leave. He believes we’ll lose our nerve so he you’ve got to do in a situation like this is con- can establish a safe haven in Iraq. And we’re stantly adjust. You can’t just get stuck in one not going to let him do it. And so we’ve got kind of response mode. You’ve got to think great special operators and U.S. forces and and watch the enemy and adjust to the coalition forces on the hunt. And at the same enemy in order to achieve an objective. And time, we’re training the Iraqis. we’re doing that. So now we’ve got much There’s a big debate in Washington about smaller-scale projects that are yielding in- who gets to decide the troop levels. Well, stant results for the people on the ground, those troop levels will be decided by this ad- so people say, ‘‘Wait a minute—this democ- ministration, and this administration is going racy deal is a pretty good thing,’’ you know. to listen, not to politicians but to the com- Businesses are flourishing in Iraq. Free- manders on the ground, of what we need on dom is coming; freedom is coming. There’s the ground in order to win this deal. a determined enemy trying to stop it, of After I leave here, I’m going to go visit course. They can’t stand freedom. I told you, with a family of one of the fallen troops. I they think the exact opposite we do. They have to be able to look that person in the don’t believe that everybody desires to be eye, and say, ‘‘The cause is just.’’ I believe free. They want everybody to live under their it is just and necessary. And I have to look totalitarian thumb. That’s what they want. that person in the eye and say that the sac- Not America and our coalition, we want gov- rifice of your loved one will not go in vain, ernments to be responsible and responsive that we will complete the mission. And that’s to the people. That’s what we believe in. what I want to assure my fellow citizens. No Thirdly, in order to achieve our objective, matter what it looks like in Washington, DC, the Iraqis are going to have to fight the I’m committed to victory in Iraq so—to enemy. They’ve proven their worth, in terms achieve peace. of defying the terrorists when it comes to And so in the short term, we’re going to making the vote, and they’re proving their succeed in Iraq. We’ll deny them safe haven. desire to defend themselves against the We’ll stay on the hunt. But there has to be enemy too. You know how I know? I’m lis- a long-term strategy as well, to win. And that tening to the people on the ground. I talk long-term strategy is to liberate people and to our commanders a lot. They’re the ones give them the chance to live under the great- who are giving me the appraisal about how est system of government ever, and that’s de- well these Iraqis are being trained. mocracy—because democracies respond to An interesting measurement, right off the people. bat, however, was how the Iraqis responded You know, our foreign policy in the broad- to these attacks on the police stations and er Middle East for a long period of time was the recruiting stations. You remember, they just kind of, tolerate the status quo and hope had a series of attacks on the recruiting sta- for the best. It didn’t work. The surface tions? Guess what my question was to them looked placid, but beneath the surface was out there: Are there still people lining up to brewing resentment and anger and fertile re- join up? If you’re getting blown up standing cruiting opportunities for those who have got in line, are they still coming? And the answer a dark vision of the future. And so we’re was, absolutely. And we’re training them, and working to help the Iraqis develop a democ- there’s a command structure—command and racy. control structure getting in place. And this Elections are only the beginning of democ- military is getting better and better. We’re racy, not the end. Election is the beginning turning over a lot of territory to the Iraqis. of a process where government listens to the They now have two divisions, which is a lot people. In order to make sure democracy

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works, there has to be institution-building does—you’ll look back and say, ‘‘Maybe old and support for young, fledgling democ- George W. Bush and the United States Con- racies. And that’s what you’re seeing. This gress was right in keeping the faith that de- is an historic moment. The world is changing mocracies can yield the peace we all want.’’ because freedom is on the march. And we I got two other things, two other things shouldn’t be discouraged about setbacks— I want to tell you, then I’ll answer questions. short-term setbacks or the enemy’s capacity We not only protect ourselves by keeping the to take innocent life because we’ve seen de- pressure on the enemy and defeating them mocracy change the world in the past. over there so we don’t have to face them I think about all the wars fought in Europe here at home, we’ve got to protect ourselves over the past 100 years. A hundred years by doing smart things in America. I hope— seems like a long time, probably, for the little I appreciate working with the mayors on guy there—me too. It seems like a while— homeland security issues. We’re training a lot I’m only 59 years old. But Americans shed of first-responders and getting people ready a lot of blood in Europe, World War I and in case something happens. World War II. And yet, the continent is— Secondly, in order to ask our folks on the Europe is peaceful. You know why? Because frontline of protecting America to do the job, there’s democracies living side by side in they’ve got to have all the tools. And the PA- peace. Democracies don’t fight each other. TRIOT Act passed right after September the Generally, people in a democracy don’t cam- 11th—had a little problem getting it out of paign and say, ‘‘Vote for me; I promise you the United States Senate, it got kind of hung war.’’ They say, ‘‘Vote for you—vote for me; up there. My reminder to those Senators is I’ll work for the peace; I want your children that the bill may—about ready to lapse, but to grow up in a peaceful world.’’ That’s what the threat isn’t. And if people in Washington people say to get elected. expect those on the frontline of protecting Japan—one of my favorite analogies and America to do their job, they got to give them stories about this is my friend Koizumi, the tools. The PATRIOT Act needs to be Prime Minister of Japan. He’s an interesting passed. guy. I like him a lot. We spend time talking Finally, I made a decision that has been about the peace. He understands that de- in the news lately, and I want to share with mocracy in the heart of the Middle East, a you my thinking, because it’s an important democracy in a part of the world that is des- decision. September the 11th made it clear perate for freedom, is an important part of to me that an enemy would do anything it laying the foundation for peace. And so he could to hurt us. We’re at war. I understand committed Japanese troops to help the Iraqis some don’t think that, that we’re at war. rebuild their country and to provide security There are good, decent Americans who be- so they could rebuild their country. lieve that. I know that. This is not what I— What’s amazing about this is that, like I don’t believe it, see. I got a different point many whose relatives—like many here whose of view. I asked our people on the ground relatives fought against the Japanese, my dad there in Washington, is there anything more did too. Isn’t that interesting? Eighteen-year- we can do to protect the American people? old kid, Navy fighter pilot, country calls him; What can we do? The enemy wants to hit like thousands, he goes overseas to fight the us; they’re planning to hit us. Is there any- sworn enemy, the Japanese. And today, this thing we can do so I can go around the coun- guy’s son is sitting down with the Prime Min- try saying, ‘‘Go about your business; we’re ister of Japan working to keep the peace. And taking care of your security for you’’? I think what happened in between was that a Japa- most people would ask that question. nese-style democracy grew. Democracies And General Mike Hayden of the NSA— yield the peace. And what the youngsters he’s a wonderful person—said he thought here have to see that’s happening is, we’re there was something more we could do. And laying that foundation for peace. Someday, he showed me the plans for this country to when you’re old and—older, I know you pick up a conversation—listen to conversa- never think it’s going to happen, but it tions from people outside the country, inside

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the country, who had an affiliation with Al thing. I’m doing the right thing. Washington Qaida or were Al Qaida. He said, ‘‘I think is a town that says, ‘‘You didn’t connect the we can design a program, Mr. President, that dots,’’ and then when you do connect the will enable us to have quick response to be dots, they say, ‘‘You’re wrong.’’ In order to able to detect and deter a potential attack.’’ protect America, if somebody is talking to I said, that’s interesting, General. I said, Al Qaida, we want to know who they are and that makes a lot of sense to me. I said, you’re why they’re talking to them. not going to listen inside the country. ‘‘No, Okay. That’s what’s on my mind. Now, this is calls from outside the country in, or what’s on yours? Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell inside out, to people who we know or suspect it. are affiliated with Al Qaida.’’ And I remem- ber some of those phone calls coming out Homeownership of California prior to the September the 11th Q. Mr. President, I just wanted to take attacks by the killers—just thinking maybe an opportunity to tell you that I think our if we’d have listened to those on a quick- country is blessed to have you as our Presi- response basis, you know, it might have dent. helped prevent the attacks. The President. Thank you. My second question was, is it legal? See, Q. That—we are very thankful that you I take that oath of office seriously—I’ve taken don’t make your decisions based on the polls, it twice as your President—to uphold the like previous Presidents have. laws and the Constitution. And so we got law- The President. Well, I appreciate that. yers all over Washington, as I’m sure you can Q. And my comment is, is that I’m a home- imagine. [Laughter] I’m not one. I said, is builder. I’m very happy right now. it legal? I’m asking this to the Attorney Gen- The President. You’ve got to be. [Laugh- eral of the United States, the Legal Counsel ter] in the White House; NSA has got lawyers. Q. But I wanted to just keep you apprised I mean, a lot of lawyers looked at this, and that things are good now; the economy is they said, ‘‘You bet, Mr. President, it’s legal.’’ good; interest rates are low. There are people And they gave me the legal ramifications. that still can’t afford homes in our country You’ll see this all—this is part of the debate. today. Affordable housing is very important. Thirdly, I knew I needed to tell Members We, as homebuilders—I served on the Board of Congress. See, they like to be a part of of Directors of the National Association of the process. They’re a co-equal branch of Homebuilders. Government, and I recognize that, and I The President. Good. honor that. And so we briefed Members of Q. We’ll be up in Washington in about the United States Congress on the full pro- a month or so to see you guys. But we’re gram so that they would know—appropriate concerned with the environment just as Members of Congress, leaders, Republicans, much as anyone else is, and—but there’s got and Democrats, leaders of the Intelligence to be a balance to make sure that we can Committee whose job it is to provide over- develop land and provide homes, affordable sight on intelligence operations. They were homes. And also Congress is working on abreast. Like my old buddy called me, he some things now that has an affect on financ- said, ‘‘You know something, if you’re trying ing and interest rates for people buying their to pull one over on them, if you’re trying first homes. And let’s make sure that we have to have an illegal program, why are you brief- affordable homes for people. ing the Congress?’’ I said, because I want My daughter is a school teacher here in people to know. Tampa, and it’s important to people like her, Unfortunately, we’re having this discus- people that protect us—the fire department, sion. It’s too bad, because guess who listens the sheriffs—they need homes. The times to the discussion: the enemy. If you don’t are good now, and I was a builder when your think we’re at war, it doesn’t matter then, friend Jimmy Carter was President, and in- does it? I know we’re at war. And the enemy terest rates weren’t so good back then, and is adjusting. But I’m going to tell you some- those were tough times. And I just want to

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tell you that I’m blessed to be here today off the coastline, we don’t mean 99 or 89, with you in this room, and we all love you. we mean 100. So rest easy. The President. Well, thanks. Let me talk Now, the thing about—look, we’ve got to about that. Thank you. You’ll be happy to get off of hydrocarbons. We just do. And I’m hear, I don’t set interest rates. [Laughter] a believer in nuclear power. I think it’s a— That’s set by an independent body. And I maybe someday, and I think we’ll—I’ll figure just named a new Chairman of the Fed to out—I’ll find out how close we are when I do that. He’s a good fellow. And so if I were visit with some of these solar technology peo- you, I’d be worried about interest rates, be- ple, but it’s very likely that you’ll become a cause when the interest rates go up, it makes little power generator in your own home, and it harder for your school teacher. that the excess power that you do not use, Well, there’s help, to help certain folks you feed back in the grid. Hybrid batteries— who qualify with their downpayments. We batteries for plug-in hybrid automobiles are want people owning their own home. See, pretty close, they tell me. And I’m going to that’s—we want this to be an ownership soci- see firsthand—sometimes the President gets ety. We want people owning their own busi- the cook’s tour, I know it—[laughter]—but ness; we want people owning their own nevertheless, I’m going to see firsthand. home; we want people owning their own Now, what’s interesting is, is that a lot of health account they can take with them from people in urban areas are not going to drive job to job like health savings accounts. And more than 30 miles a day. And so we’re de- homeownership is high right now. More mi- veloping automobile engines that can run on norities own a home than ever before in our electricity for 30 miles, and then if you go Nation’s history, which is a fantastic statistic. more, your gasoline kicks in. But it requires But interest rates matter, as does good tax a battery that has got good storage capacity policy. Maybe you’re hinting at whether or and is easy to recharge. It’s coming. not the mortgage deduction would be part And so there’s a lot of technologies that of a plan. I don’t think you have to worry are coming on the market, and we’re spend- about the mortgage deduction not being a ing money. And it’s a good use of taxpayers’ part of the income-tax law. But thank you money, it seems like to me, in order to for bringing that up. achieve some big objectives. Yes, sir. Go ahead and yell it. Let me get I’m going to India on March the 1st, a mike for you. around that period of time, and I believe that it’s good policy for the United States to en- Florida Coastline/Energy courage these emerging economies to use Q. Mr. President, you mentioned a trip clean energy, nuclear power, so as to help next week to visit the sources of renewable, reduce demand for, kind of, nonrenewables. additional technology to reduce our depend- And so I’m going to talk to them about devel- ence on foreign oil. We have a not-so-renew- opment of a civilian nuclear power industry. able resource, which is our precious Florida They’re telling me China has got about 34 coastline. And because of your great brother, plants on the market, which is good. But this we do have an unemployment rate of 3.3 per- expansion of nuclear power—which is in our cent. How can you work with us to protect interests, by the way; it’s in our interests be- our Florida shoreline with respect to offshore cause of the quality of the air; it’s in our inter- drilling? ests because it takes—reduces demand, glob- The President. Well, I made a commit- al demand—is going to create another issue, ment that nothing is going to happen within and that is, what are we going to do with 100 miles of this coastline, and I’m honoring the spent fuel? This country doesn’t reproc- the commitment. I don’t care what people ess spent fuel; we should. Reprocessing spent might be saying—I guess maybe they quit fuel means that we’re able to continue to saying it after the ’04 campaign—but it’s a reuse the base material that went through commitment that this Government has—at the burn the first time in a plant and reduce least my Government has made, and I’m the amount that we have to then eventually going to honor it. When we say 100 miles store. And we chose not to do that in the

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late ’70s because of proliferation concerns. Yes, sir. I’ve heard from Jeb on this issue, I’m convinced we can work internationally by the way. to address those issues. And so I’m just sharing with you—we got Alternative Sources of Energy a full strategy to help us make us less depend- Q. Mr. President, welcome back to ent on energy—on foreign sources of energy. Tampa. Yes, sir. The President. Thank you. Q. And my question is, you’ve talked a lot Transportation about our addiction to oil today. You’ve also talked about advanced, alternative fuel Q. Commissioner Reynolds from Winter sources, in particular for household vehicles Garden in the central part of the State. as a potential mitigant to that dilemma. But The President. Oh, yes, I know where you we have a very robust, industrialized econ- are. omy—air, rail, shipping, trucking—that has Q. Pressed into service by your brother, depended on oil, frankly, for generations to Honorable Jeb Bush. be successful and vibrant. So my question The President. Is that good or bad? If is, how do we maintain the most advanced, it’s bad, take it up with him. [Laughter] industrialized economy on Earth and actually Q. I thought about calling him and asking reduce our dependency on oil going forward? him if he’d like to have the job back. The President. Well, I believe—first of The President. That’s right. [Laughter] all, natural gas has driven a lot of our indus- Q. The concerns from the central part of trialized growth, as you know. And we are— the State is, we’ve got a really unprecedented we need to have—import liquified natural growth rate there in the middle part. The gas if we’re going to be modern and stay com- challenge is for mass transportation to free petitive. us from the oil that you talk about. Unfortu- Listen, we’re going to need oil. The ques- nately, the proportionate share of funding tion is, are we able to reduce dependency that we’re able to secure seems to be tied from certain parts of the world. And I think into porkbarrel, like light rail which—Con- that by relieving pressure on how we drive gressman Mica needs to buy into the fact that our cars, we’ll, in fact, help segments of our it’s not realistic. So how do we get free from economy that are going to take a while to that so we can get direct funding for mass diversify away from hydrocarbons, I guess is transit? the best kind of macro look. The President. Yes. That will be some- Things don’t happen instantly; I under- thing that you’ll be able to effect 5 years from stand that. But nevertheless, there are some now, because I signed the highway bill, and practical ways that we can reduce our de- it’s done. And nobody wants to deal with it pendency, and it seems like to me, the most again until it expires, to be frank with you. practical way is to change automobiles, But I understand—but what he’s saying is, change how we drive. In the short term, eth- how come you just don’t let Floridians decide anol and hybrid batteries makes the most how to spend the money that’s supposed to sense to me. It’s the most practical way and go back to them? Why do you earmark parts most economic way to begin the reduction of the bill? That’s what you’re saying. And of dependency. I do think Congress needs to work on ear- Now, listen, we’ve got a large fleet—I told mark reform. I’m just not one of these guys— you, there’s four-and-a-half [million] * flex- if there’s no hope, I got to let you know, fuel cars. That’s good, except there’s about brother. There ain’t no hope. [Laughter] 200 million cars. And it takes a while for They’re not going to revisit the highway bill. fleets to renew. And so things don’t happen They’re just not going to revisit the highway instantly, but they will happen quicker as we bill until the highway bill expires. And then continue to press for innovation and tech- perhaps you can get the kind of—they can nology. get the kind of reforms. As you know, I ain’t going to be around. [Laughter] * White House correction.

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Ultimately, I believe that we’re going to this same dilemma? I think this is an incred- be using hydrogen to power our automobiles. ible problem. But that’s 15 years down the—for the tech- The President. I appreciate that. First, is nology to be applicable is 15 years down the to support and work with moderate govern- road. And I guess what I’m not only—I guess ments, and there are a lot. The largest Mus- I am, what I’m telling you is that we see tech- lim nation is Indonesia. And we’re working nological breakthroughs pretty darn quick closely with the President there to help pro- when it comes to ethanol and hybrid bat- mote a better understanding of different reli- teries, which is a positive development for gions. I will be seeing President Musharraf, the people. And it’s an interesting thing who I like, and he’s a good fellow, who un- about ethanol is that the barriers to entry are derstands that moderation is an important pretty low, when it comes to manufac- part of a hopeful future. And so support Gov- turing—if the technology says that we can— ernments that practice moderation. yields the capacity to convert switch grasses Secondly, provide assistance when assist- and refuses to ethanol, once that techno- ance is needed. In my State of the Union, logical breakthrough comes, the barriers to I said, we’ve got to reject isolationism. Isola- entry are pretty low when it comes to build- tionism is the tendency for a nation to with- ing the manufacturing capacity that converts draw and not feel an obligation to be involved raw material to ethanol. Much different from in the world. And we cannot defend our- a big cracker refinery. And so that’s positive. selves if we’re isolationist. I just made the So we’ve got the car technology, hopefully case. But I also believe, and part of my phi- have the breakthrough technology on fuel, losophy in the decisionmaking is, to whom and then the infrastructure will follow. much has been given, much is required. And And so what I’m saying is, this is the most therefore, when we see suffering in places practical way to become less dependent on like Pakistan or because of the tsunami, the oil. And the economy will continue to func- United States of America is leading the way tion. But things are happening, by the way, in. in diesel. I don’t know visiting your area— And it helps. It helped a lot in Pakistan, if any of you know something about trucking, for example, to see those choppers flying re- you know that diesel, clean diesel engines are lief supplies up for poor folks who had coming. We did a deal in my administration been—whose lives had been just devastated. to work with diesel engine manufacturers to I can’t remember the exact numbers, but come up with a very low-emission engine that President Musharraf told me; we’re talking is now being applied in trucks, and it’s going hundreds of thousands of people either dead, to make a difference—on Caterpillar trac- injured, or displaced. And there was the tors. We’re getting there; we’re getting there. United States of America military flying in Thanks for the question. Yes, sir. supplies. I believe, John Abizaid—General Abizaid told me today that we turned over our MASH unit to the Pakistani Government Spread of Democracy/America’s to help so they could continue to provide aid Influence Abroad and comfort. Q. ——it seems to me that we are facing And so there are practical ways. One is in this country—I’ve had the opportunity to to support moderation, and two, help where interface with people of Muslim countries, help is needed. Our HIV/AIDS initiative, by and the war is bad enough, and I applaud the way, is a fantastic initiative. It is—I can’t what you’re doing because freedom is impor- tell you how proud I am of the American tant, but what concerns me is if the youth people for supporting this. It is necessary for in these nations are being taught that you the United States of America to be taking and I and us Americans are, in fact, the devil the lead on this issue to save lives. If we say, incarnate or Satan, himself—I guess my human dignity matters and every life is pre- question is, what can we do about that, to cious, if that’s part of a credo as a country, win over the people, the children, the youth, which it is—that’s what we say. We say, ‘‘Peo- so that the next generation will not be facing ple matter; every human life is precious.’’

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Then those human lives apply not just here universal call to love a neighbor, by the at home but on the continent of Africa or way—to have access to Federal money, in in Muslim countries. And there’s a lot of other words, level the playing field for grant Muslims in Africa who’ve seen the great money so that these programs—which have compassion of the United States of America been set up to love somebody and provide when it comes to helping to battle HIV/ love—have got equal access to Federal AIDS. There’s a pandemic taking place. And money. It’s a really important initiative. you ought to be proud of this country, like There are targeted monies, of course. I am, that we’re filling that void of compas- There’s monies aimed at the different com- sion and need and hope. munity groups dealing with drug use. But I Yes. Right here. Yes. You’re next. Yes. Yes, think the most important initiative of all is ma’am. to empower groups that really do provide mentoring and care and decency on an indi- Helping America’s Youth Initiative vidual basis for somebody who needs it. And Q. I know that you and First Lady Bush it’s happening. It’s happening in America. have talked much about our hurting genera- Yes. tion of teens and our unproductive teens in our communities. Just wanted you to talk a Culture of Life little bit about the efforts being made with Q. Mr. President, it’s an honor to be here the work that you’re doing in initiatives—— with you today, and I thank you so much The President. Thanks. for the time that you take to share with us. Q. ——that will help that. I’m a 40-year-old father of a 3-year-old. The President. I appreciate that. First, The President. There you go. there’s positive news. Teen pregnancies are Q. And I’m also an adopted child. And it down; teen drug use is down. And that’s posi- seems that, anymore, through the results of tive. That’s good—because of people at the legislation from the bench, that maybe the grassroots level—people at the grassroots unsafest place for a child in this country is level. I think one of the most important ini- in his or her mother’s womb. And my ques- tiatives of this administration is to—is the tion for you is—and I commend you for your Faith-Based and Community Initiative, Supreme Court picks. I thank you for your which recognizes what de Tocqueville saw bold stance in who you picked. My question in the 1830s. He’s a French guy who came is, with my son—this is the future of Amer- over here—[laughter]—in case you don’t re- ica. And my question is, where do you believe member. And he recognized that the great we’re headed? Long after your term of serv- strength of America was the capacity for indi- ing us has ended and long after we’ve had vidualists—or the willingness of individualists other Presidents serve this country, where do to work together in what he called voluntary you think we’re headed in the areas of abor- associations to make the community in which tion, in the areas of traditional marriage, in they live a better place. And he saw that in the areas of faith and the foundations that the 1830s. this country was founded upon that are so It’s a—what he saw is still the strength of under attack anymore? Where do you believe our country, if you really think about it. You we’re going? know, Government can hand out money, but The President. I’m an optimist. I believe Government cannot put a hope in a person’s we’re headed toward a period of personal re- heart. A lot of people miss one of the basics sponsibility, where people understand that ingredients of life, and that is love. And love they’re responsible for the decisions they happens when somebody puts an arm around make in life. a person and says, ‘‘What can I do to help I just gave you some statistics. Abortions you, brother or sister?’’ are down in America as well, by the way. And so part of our initiative in dealing with People are—one of my jobs is to promote loneliness, discouragement, lack of self-es- a culture of life. And I just told you every teem, is to encourage faith-based pro- life is precious, and I meant it, whether it grams—which all exist because they hear a be here at home or on the continent of Africa

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where somebody’s suffering from HIV/ Q. We appreciate it. How do you—earlier AIDS. And so I’m an optimist. I think people you shared with us some intimacy about how are beginning to understand that there is vir- you make decisions, and I felt that was heart- tue in being personally responsible for the felt. How do you keep it together? What do decisions you make in life. you really think about when the biggest story And that—there’s a—and cultures change, this week was Dick Cheney’s hunting trip and it takes a while for cultures to change. and not Al Gore blasting our troops and All of us—I’m not going to peg anybody a being treasonous in his regard to this war certain age around here, but those of us born, on terror in the Middle East? How do you like, around ’46, ’47, ’48, we’ve seen a culture keep it together? change in our lifetime, if you really think The President. Well, I appreciate that. about it. The culture changed, and it can That’s a loaded question. [Laughter] I keep change again. And I think these statistics that it in perspective. There’s a lot of noise in show that some problems that seemed incur- Washington. There’s a lot of flattery; there’s able at one point in our history indicate that a lot of criticism; there’s just a lot of noise. there is a cultural shift. A lot of it has to And I keep it in—I try to keep my life in do with people being responsible. Some of perspective. I try to—I don’t try to; I do keep it has to do with there’s a religious awakening my life in perspective. And I am focused on around many communities in the country, achieving certain objectives. Every day—I’ve not just Christian religion, Jewish religion, said this, and I mean this—every day I think Muslim religion. People are becoming reli- about how to protect America. Every day in gious in America. And that, in itself, helps the morning, first thing in the morning, I get people realize that you’ve got to be conscious briefed by our intelligence officers about po- of the decisions you make and mindful of tential threats. Every morning I’m aware of the needs of others. the world around us. And I told you that And—but we still got challenges. One of it’s—9/11 changed my thinking. My focus is the things that obviously undermines good there. teaching at home is TV and some of the mov- You know, I care deeply about troubled ies. But I remind people, they put ‘‘off’’ and youth. I’m worried about Katrina victims. I’m ‘‘on’’ knobs on TVs for a reason. You don’t worried about people that got moved out of have to go to a movie if you don’t want to their home, and they ended up somewhere go to a movie. See, I think you can promote else. Put yourself in their perspective. I said responsibility at home and still live in the free homeownership is valuable. We talked about society where people are allowed to express homeownership here, how important it is— themselves. And my advice to parents is, pay and somebody wakes up the next morning attention to the Internet. Part of the problem and their home is gone. And not only that, we have in our society is people aren’t paying they ended up out, somewhere else, you attention to their kids’ habits. And when know. The good news is those people found you’ve got your child on the Internet, make love, which is a wonderful thing about our sure you know what that child is looking at, country. And I think about those kind of because that’s your responsibility. It’s not the things. Government’s responsibility to take care of So to answer your question—and I appre- your child; it’s your responsibility to take care ciate that—first, I’m wise enough not to fall of your child. into your trap because—[laughter]—there are some keen reporters paying attention to President’s Personal Values every word I’m saying. [Laughter] But I real- ly don’t let that bother me. I’ve got my per- Q. Thank you for being our President. We spective, and I’ve got my priorities. My faith are all way better off and very safe—— is a priority. My family is a priority. Look, The President. Thanks. It’s my high we got to deal with issues, of course, when honor, by the way. they come up. That’s part of—it’s part of Q. Thank you. Washington. It’s part of being the President. The President. I’m glad I did it. There’s—issues come, and they go. And

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they—but I hope that when it’s all said and Americans will not do. And that is a fact. And done, people see me as a strategic thinker it’s a—as I told you, we deal with the way and that I’m able to stay focused on a strategy the world—the way it is, not the way we hope that will leave behind peace and hope— that it is, and therefore, how to deal with peace around the world and hope not only that issue, what do you do? You got people around the world but equally importantly, working here, doing jobs Americans won’t here at home, so people have this sense of do. the greatness of America. It’s a—we’re a fan- My attitude is, you recognize it for what tastic country. it is, and you say, ‘‘You can do this on a tem- Think about a country—when you really porary basis.’’ You say, if there’s a willing em- put America in perspective, ours is a country ployer and a willing worker on a job an Amer- where somebody can come with nothing ex- ican won’t do, then it’s okay to fill that job, cept drive and desire, and end up being able so long as you’re not here permanently, so to raise a family and realize dreams. It is a long as this is not—[applause]. And so I be- fantastic land. And the great thing about lieve there ought to be a temporary-worker America is it doesn’t matter who you are, you program. We’ve tried this in America be- know, if you got the drive and the desire and fore—pretty successful, at least in my own the willingness, you can make it in this coun- home State of Texas. You got people—old try. And it’s a powerful—it’s a powerful— Red Putnam over there, he’s got people— that’s a powerful statement to make. And probably have been bringing people in to that’s the way we need to keep it, by the pick oranges for awhile, I don’t know. Agri- way. And so—I don’t even know how I got culture relies upon a lot of people willing to there, but anyway. [Laughter] do the work that others won’t do. And it Yes, ma’am. seems like to me that there ought to be a legal way to make this happen without cre- Immigration/Social Security Reform ating a sense of amnesty or permanency. Q. In light of national security, some of And so, one, I have a deal with immigra- us baby boomers are going to retire in the tion rationally. Now, we’ve got an obligation next 3 to 5 years. to enforce our borders and our coastlines, The President. There you go. I know how and we’re spending a lot of money to do so. you’re thinking, baby. [Laughter] I’m right The Texas border is long, and it’s hard to there with you. [Laughter] enforce. I mean, it’s a lot of miles, a lot of Q. And the number of people replacing empty country. And so we’re using new tech- us is only at about 63 percent. So what are nologies, drones, infrared, some mounds, we going to do with immigration to make some fencing in cities, to try to make it hard- sure we have enough people to fill those posi- er for people to cross. But the truth of the tions? matter is, a lot of our Border Patrol agents The President. Yes, it’s interesting; I are chasing people who are coming here to thought you were going a different direction. work, see. And it seems like to me that if [Laughter] I’m going to answer two ques- we could have a rational system that would tions. I thought you were taking me down enable people to do this on a temporary that Social Security route, because it’s a really basis, it would take the pressures off the bor- interesting—that’s a really interesting way to ders. People would be able to come in here frame the immigration debate. Really is, I in a rational, legal way. haven’t heard it put that way. Now, as I told you, I’m not for amnesty. Let me answer immigration first and then You got about 8 million-plus people here ille- talk about the unfunded liabilities inherent gally. My worry is if the—all of a sudden legal in Medicare and Social Security as a result citizens, then another 8 million comes. And of baby boomers like me and you retiring I don’t think that makes any sense. So in with not enough people to pay it, to pay the terms of immigration, I’m for border en- bill. forcement, and strong border enforcement, First, immigration. There are a lot of peo- with a rational guest-worker program that’s ple working here in America doing jobs temporary in nature, where it’s understood

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that you’re working here for a period of time, said, ‘‘Whatever you do, don’t be too windy.’’ then you’re going back on home. [Laughter] I didn’t listen to her. Now, I want to talk to you about what’s You bring up a huge problem, and that happened as a result of the current program. is, she identified something younger workers When you make something illegal, and better be asking politicians to do something there’s a—you know, people coming here to about, and that is, just to put it blunt, Social work; people figure out ways around it. I’m Security is going broke. And the reason why not old enough to remember the old whisky is a baby boom generation, like some of us days of Prohibition, but I remember reading here, are fixing to retire. And there’s a lot about it—people still made whisky because of us, and we’ve been promised greater bene- people wanted to drink it. fits than the previous generation, and there And so guess what’s happening today? are fewer people paying in the system. And We’ve got people getting stuffed in the back it’s difficult—— of 18-wheelers, driving across hot desert to Audience member. [Inaudible] find jobs that most often or not Americans The President. ——and we’re living won’t do. There’s a whole smuggling industry longer, yes, thank you. [Laughter] Yes, cam- as a result of making temporary work—not eras and everything, they’re—leave your making it legal. A whole smuggling indus- name with them. [Laughter] She’s right, and try—coyotes they’re called—and it’s inhu- we’re living longer. I wish I’d have thought mane. It just is, any way you look at it. of that. [Laughter] You know, family values don’t stop at the We’ve got to do something about it, and Rio Grande River. If you’ve got starving chil- I tried last year. The job of the President dren and there’s a job over here in America is not to pass problems on but to confront that pays you more than it does in Mexico them. That’s my job. That’s what you expect that an American won’t do, you’ll come and people to do. And I’m going to continue try- do that job and get that money back to your ing. And so they said, ‘‘Well, we don’t have family. a problem.’’ Well, one thing people now have Secondly, one way to make immigration recognized is we got a problem. I succeeded. policy work is you’ve got to enforce the law. Not only did I succeed, others succeeded too, And so you’ve got to go to employers. I’m in reminding—we’ve got the issue, talking it not going to come to your home building up. site—but anyway. [Laughter] You come to People are now beginning to realize what enforce the law, right? And so you’re a home you realize and I realize, that we’re going builder out here in the Tampa area; a bunch to fine—it’s just the people paying in the pay- of people show up, roofers show up, and say, roll taxes. Can you imagine looking at young- you know, ‘‘We’re legal; here’s my card.’’ sters in the eye, and say, ‘‘Pay in the payroll You’re not in the business of telling me taxes,’’ and you know the system is going whether or not that’s a forged document or broke? That’s not a good deal. And so in the not. You don’t know. It looks real. And that’s State of the Union, I said, ‘‘Look, I tried it; all you’re expected—but I’m telling you, I’m going to try it again,’’ is basically what they’re forging these documents. There’s a I said. This time I believe that we need to whole underground industry. They’re smug- have a table with Republican and Democrats gling people, and they’re forging documents. sitting around it, and sit down and get some- And our borders are being over—it makes thing done. This isn’t going to pass unless it much harder to enforce. And so I think it’s—people from both parties can come up by having a rational plan—temporary worker, with something to do. There’s just too much no amnesty—will expose these people run- opposition one way or the other, unless ners and drug—document forgers for what there’s a bipartisan solution. I believe the they are. So that’s my answer on immigration. American people are pretty sick and tired of Now, Social Security and Medicare. needless partisanship in Washington, DC, They’re giving me the hook, by the way; I’ve and I know they expect us to get some stuff got another speech here in Florida. Laura done.

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And so I just want to assure you, I’m going accord. I hope they’re effective at helping to keep trying and keep trying and keep try- the people of southern Sudan. I have talked ing because it’s the right thing to do. It’s the to Museveni, President Museveni, about the right thing to uphold the honor of our offices issue as well, and I’ve been with him, I think, by confronting these problems now, and not two or three times. I know on two occasions saying, ‘‘It’s okay for another President,’’ or we’ve talked about this—and will continue ‘‘It’s okay for another Congress,’’ and just to talk to him about it. I’m very aware of keep shuffling it down the path. Now is the the issue. time to get it done, because the longer you My hope is that by having a southern Suda- wait, the worse the problem gets. Every year nese—having the peace agreement nego- that goes by, the problem gets worse for a tiated between north and south so the south- next generation of Americans. ern Sudanese can begin to get their lives back Okay, I’ve got the hook. Listen, let me con- in order, get the oil money moving that’s clude—yes, ma’am. Anybody who makes that guaranteed to them, will help provide—help kind of noise—— drive them out of any safe haven in the south, which will make it easier for all of us to deal. Uganda/Sudan It’s kind of a roundabout answer, but I’m Q. I did not do that. aware of the problem, first of all. And sec- The President. Okay, good. [Laughter] ondly, I’m surprised that anybody in this au- Q. It’s a small part of the world, but it’s dience would bring it up, and I thank you very important to me—I’m concerned about for that. the children in northern Uganda who are the We also have got a major issue in Darfur, victims of the rebel Joseph Kony. And I’m Sudan. I presume if you’re worried about wondering if you can bring any pressure to northern Uganda, you’re also worried about bear on President Museveni to stop that 20- western Sudan, as am I. The strategy there year war and free those children from the was to encourage African Union troops to try bondage that they’re under. to bring some sense of security to these poor The President. Really interesting ques- people that are being herded out of their vil- tion. She’s talking about the—northern lages and just terribly mistreated. We need Uganda. There’s a group called the Lord’s more troops. The effort was noble, but it Group that has been terrorizing both north- didn’t achieve the objective. ern Uganda and southern Sudan. I talked to And so I’m in the process now of working Mrs. Garang, John Garang’s widow. John with a variety of folks to encourage there to Garang was the head of the Sudanese in the be more troops, probably under the United southern part of the country that, by the way, Nations. I talked to Kofi Annan about this became adopted by a church in Midland, very subject this week. But it’s going to re- Texas, my old hometown, interestingly quire a—I think a NATO stewardship, plan- enough. And early in my administration, I ning, facilitating, organizing, probably double got Jack Danforth, a former United States the number of peacekeepers that are there Senator, to go and negotiate an agreement now, in order to start bringing some sense between northern Sudan and southern of security. There has to be a consequence Sudan. And John Garang was a partner in for people abusing their fellow citizens. peace. Unfortunately, he died in a helicopter At the same time, part of the issue in the accident about a year ago, I think. And the Darfur region is that the rebel groups are reason I bring this up is that there’s no doubt not united in their objectives. And so politi- it would be easier to deal with the Lord’s cally or diplomatically, we have to work to Group if we were able to achieve peace be- make sure there’s one voice from which to tween north and south Sudan. They take ad- speak, so that we can then create kind of vantage of instability. the same agreement between Government in I have talked to this—I’ve talked about this Darfur that was created between north and issue with Mrs. Garang, as well as—now, south. A lot of talk, but we’ve got a strategy, there are peacekeepers in the region, by the and it’s of concern, to the point where our way, U.N. peacekeepers on the north-south country was the first country to call what was

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taking place a genocide, which matters— In the evening, at a private residence, the words matter. President made remarks at a National Re- And so, thank you for bringing up that part publican Senatorial Committee reception. of the world. That’s very interesting that you The President announced his intention to would have that on your mind. You’re a de- nominate Robert Irwin Cusick, Jr., to be Di- cent soul, a decent soul. rector of the Office of Government Ethics. All right, I’ve got to go. Thanks for your The President announced his intention to time. God bless. Appreciate it. nominate James Lambright to be President of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. NOTE: The President spoke at 1:26 p.m. at the The President announced his intention to Port of Tampa. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. nominate Jon T. Rymer to be Inspector Gen- John P. Abizaid, USA, combatant commander, eral of the Federal Deposit Insurance Cor- U.S. Central Command; Gen. Bryan D. Brown, poration. USA, commander U.S. Special Operations Com- The President announced his intention to mand; Ambassador to Italy Melvin Sembler and nominate Dennis R. Spurgeon to be an As- his wife Betty; Mayor Pam Iorio of Tampa, FL; Mayor Rick Baker of St. Petersburg, FL; Gov. Jeb sistant Secretary of Energy (Nuclear En- Bush of Florida; Ayman Al-Zawahiri, founder of ergy). the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and senior Al Qaida The President announced his intention to associate; former Mayor Robert Martinez of appoint the following individuals as members Tampa, FL; Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay of the President’s Committee on the National Khalilzad; senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab Medal of Science: Oliver K. Baker; Sally K. Al Zarqawi; President Susilo Bambarg Yudhoyano Mason; Robert Y. Moore; and Harvey S. of Indonesia; President Pervez Musharraf of Paki- Rosen. stan; President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Ugan- The President announced his intention to da; and Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the appoint Samuel K. Lessey, Jr., John Stringer United Nations. Rainey, and William H. Strong as members of the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy. The President announced his intention to Digest of Other appoint the following individuals as members White House Announcements of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation: Raymond G. Chambers; Darrell Green; Michelle Nunn; Sara Evans The following list includes the President’s public Schelske; and Mark G. Yudof. schedule and other items of general interest an- The President announced his designation nounced by the Office of the Press Secretary and of the following individuals as members of not included elsewhere in this issue. a Presidential delegation to attend the closing ceremonies of the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy: Rudolph W. Giuliani (head of February 11 delegation); Ronald P. Spogli; Mario In the morning, the President had an intel- Andretti; and A. Kenneth Ciongoli. ligence briefing. February 14 February 13 In the morning, the President had an intel- In the morning, the President had an intel- ligence briefing. ligence briefing followed by a National Secu- In the afternoon, in the Oval Office, the rity Council meeting. Later, he participated President met with the President’s Council in a signing ceremony for the 2006 Economic on Service and Civic Participation. Report of the President and a photo oppor- In the evening, in the State Dining Room, tunity with members of the Council of Eco- the President and Mrs. Bush attended a Val- nomic Advisers. entine’s Day dinner. Later, in the East In the afternoon, the President had lunch Room, they attended a Valentine’s Day per- with Vice President Dick Cheney. formance.

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February 15 Corps volunteer Joe MacDougald. Later, he In the morning, the President had break- participated in a briefing on the war on terror fast with congressional leaders to discuss leg- with commanders of U.S. Central and Spe- islative priorities. Later, he had an intel- cial Operations Commands. ligence briefing. He then met with Secretary In the afternoon, the President met with of State Condoleezza Rice. family members of a soldier killed in Iraq. Later in the morning, the President trav- Later, he traveled to Orlando, FL, where, eled to Columbus, OH, where, upon arrival, upon arrival, he met with USA Freedom he met with USA Freedom Corps volunteer Corps volunteer Shauna Clark. He then trav- Suraj Naresh Hinduja, before traveling to eled to Lake Buena Vista, FL. Dublin, OH. Then, in the employee break In the evening, at Disney’s Contemporary room at Wendy’s International, Inc., Cor- Resort, the President attended a Republican porate Headquarters, he participated in a Party of Florida dinner. He then returned meeting on health savings accounts. to Washington, DC. In the afternoon, the President returned to Washington, DC. Later, in the Oval Of- fice, he participated in a signing ceremony for H.R. 4636, the Federal Deposit Insur- Nominations ance Reform Conforming Amendments Act Submitted to the Senate of 2005. February 16 The following list does not include promotions of In the morning, the President had an intel- members of the Uniformed Services, nominations ligence briefing. Later, he had a meeting to the Service Academies, or nominations of For- with health insurance and business leaders eign Service officers. to discuss health care transparency issues. He then participated in a briefing on the war Submitted February 13 on terror in Iraq with Republican Members of Congress. Robert Irwin Cusick, Jr., In the afternoon, at the historic Evermay of Kentucky, to be Director of the Office of house, the President attended a Republican Government Ethics for a term of 5 years, National Committee luncheon. vice Amy L. Comstock, resigned. The President announced his intention to nominate Linda Avery Strachan to be an As- Donald J. DeGabrielle, Jr., sistant Secretary of Agriculture for Congres- of Texas, to be U.S. Attorney for the South- sional Relations. ern District of Texas for the term of 4 years, The President announced his intention to vice Michael Taylor Shelby. appoint Lee J. Styslinger III as a member of the President’s Export Council. James Lambright, The President announced his intention to of Missouri, to be President of the Export- appoint Joyce A. Silverthorne and Arthur W. Import Bank of the United States for a term Zimiga as members of the National Advisory expiring January 20, 2009, vice Philip Merrill, Council on Indian Education. resigned. February 17 Dennis R. Spurgeon, of Florida, to be an Assistant Secretary of In the morning, the President had an intel- Energy (Nuclear Energy), (new position). ligence briefing. He also had a telephone conversation with Secretary General Jakob Submitted February 14 Gijsbert ‘‘Jaap’’ de Hoop Scheffer of NATO to discuss the situation in Darfur, Sudan. Jerome A. Holmes, Later in the morning, the President trav- of Oklahoma, to be U.S. District Judge for eled to Tampa, FL, where, at MacDill Air the Northern District of Oklahoma, vice Force Base, he met with USA Freedom Sven E. Holmes, resigned.

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Jon T. Rymer, Released February 13 of Tennessee, to be Inspector General, Fed- eral Deposit Insurance Corporation, vice Transcript of a press briefing by Press Sec- Gaston L. Gianni, Jr. retary Scott McClellan Transcripts of press briefings by Council of Milan D. Smith, Jr., Economic Advisers members Katherine of California, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for Baicker and Matthew J. Slaughter on the the Ninth Circuit, vice A. Wallace Tashima, 2006 Economic Report of the President retired. Advanced text: Remarks by Assistant to the Frank D. Whitney, President for Homeland Security and of North Carolina, to be U.S. District Judge Counterterrorism Frances Fragos Townsend for the Western District of North Carolina, on national preparedness to the NEMA Con- vice H. Brent McKnight, deceased. ference Submitted February 17 Released February 14 Linda Avery Strachan, Transcript of a press briefing by Press Sec- of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of retary Scott McClellan Agriculture, vice Mary Kirtley Waters.

Randall L. Tobias, Released February 15 of Indiana, to be Administrator of the U.S. Transcript of a press gaggle by Press Sec- Agency for International Development, vice retary Scott McClellan Andrew S. Natsios, resigned. Statement by the Press Secretary announcing David F. Kustoff, that the President signed H.R. 4636 of Tennessee, to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee for the term Released February 16 of 4 years, vice Terrell Lee Harris, resigned. Transcript of a press briefing by Press Sec- John Charles Richter, retary Scott McClellan of Oklahoma, to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma for the term Transcript of a press briefing by OMB Dep- of 4 years, vice Robert Garner McCampbell, uty Director Joel Kaplan, Under Secretary resigned. of Defense Tina W. Jonas, State Department Senior Adviser for Foreign Assistance Maria Amul R. Thapar, Raphael, State Department Senior Adviser of Kentucky, to be U.S. Attorney for the for Iraq James Jeffrey on the FY 2006 emer- Eastern District of Kentucky for the term of gency supplemental request for the global 4 years, vice Gregory F. Van Tatenhove, re- war on terror signed. Fact sheet: President Requests $72.4 Billion for the Global War on Terror Fact sheet: President Bush Requests $19.8 Checklist Billion for Hurricane Recovery of White House Press Releases Released February 17

The following list contains releases of the Office Transcript of a press gaggle by Deputy Press of the Press Secretary that are neither printed as Secretary Trent Duffy items nor covered by entries in the Digest of Other White House Announcements. Fact sheet: President Bush Receives Briefing From Military Commanders

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Acts Approved Approved February 10 ** by the President H.R. 4519 / Public Law 109–172 Approved February 3 * State High Risk Pool Funding Extension Act of 2006 H.R. 4659 / Public Law 109–170 To amend the USA PATRIOT ACT to ex- Approved February 15 tend the sunset of certain provisions of such Act H.R. 4636 / Public Law 109–173 Approved February 8 ** Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Con- S. 1932 / Public Law 109–171 forming Amendments Act of 2005 Deficit Reduction Act of 2005

* This public law was inadvertently omitted ** These public laws were not received in time from last week’s issue. for inclusion in the appropriate issue.

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