Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Remarks by Georgia Senator Zell Miller at Democrats for Bush Rollout
Washington, D.C.
SENATOR MILLER: Thank you, Marc. I appreciate your kind introduction, and I appreciate even more your efforts to re-elect President Bush.
Like me, Marc was a governor and he understands the importance of strong leadership. He’s doing important work over at the campaign, making sure that America has a strong and steady leader for another four years.
I am honored to stand squarely with President George W. Bush as he leads America at this defining moment in our history. The road that brought me here today is paved with a lot of frustration, but also a lot of hope.
I was born a Democrat and I expect I’ll be a Democrat until the day I leave this earth. But I have grown mighty frustrated with the direction my party has taken over the last few years. National Democratic leaders today are moving further and further away from the principles that made our party great.
On tax cuts, on education reform, on adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, and most importantly on the war against terror – some national Democratic leaders are so eager to defeat George Bush that they don’t realize he’s acting on the ideals we have supported for years: promoting prosperity and equal opportunity; giving help to Americans who need it most; defending America’s security and promoting freedom.
Frankly I’ve had it up to here with the politicians who claim to represent my party but really represent nothing but special interest groups and their own partisan agendas.
I’d like people to know that all Democrats are not like the people they see squawking on their TV attacking the President. There are a lot of good, honorable Democrats all across America – even some here in Washington, DC – who are doing the work that made this party great – fighting for opportunity and freedom for all men and women, here in America and around the world.
Luckily, Democrats like me have a courageous and honorable leader that we’re proud to support. It just so happens that he has a little R” next to his name.
President George W. Bush is the leader America has needed over the last three years – and he is the leader America needs for the next four years.
President Bush has led America in a time of recession, terrorism, and war. But through it all he has never forgotten his charge to protect our nation’s security and promote opportunity for every American. He is guided by the right principles – aided by his strong faith – and I know that my family and the people of my state are more secure with George W. Bush in the White House.
I have also known John Kerry for several years and I’ve considered him a friend. He served our country honorably in Vietnam, and he has served our party admirably through much of his tenure in the Senate.
But after listening to Senator Kerry over the last year or two – after hearing the agenda he’s laid out for our country – I cannot support him in his race for the presidency. There are too many issues about which John Kerry and I disagree. And there are too few similarities between John Kerry and the great Democratic leaders I’ve known.
Consider one of our greatest Democratic Presidents: John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Back in 1963 President Kennedy proposed a 13.6 billion dollar tax cut. At the time, it would have been the largest tax cut in history.
Part of President Kennedy’s plan was to cut the top tax rate by 26 percentage points – and our party stood with him.
A few years ago, President Bush proposed cutting the top tax rate by 6 percentage points, and a lot of Democrats howled with outrage.
President Kennedy also proposed cutting the lowest tax rate to 14 percent. President Bush went even further and asked us to cut that bottom rate to 10 percent, so that the people who are working hard to make ends meet have a little more breathing room at the end of the month.
All told, President Kennedy’s proposed tax cuts equaled more than 2 percent of the national economy. President Bush’s proposed tax cuts – the tax cuts that some Democrats said would gut the federal government – they represented 1.2 percent of the economy.
John F. Kerry may have the same initials as John F. Kennedy, but he has a far different view of what the government should do to help families prosper.
Senator Kerry doesn’t make any secret of the fact that he wants to bring more money into Washington so that he can decide how to spend it.
In his first one hundred days in office, John Kerry’s massive health care plan would force him to raise taxes by as much as $900 billion. And the only way he’s going to get that kind of money is if he reaches into the wallet of every man and woman in America.
His spending and tax plan would stifle our economy and stall our recovery.
I was proud to co-sponsor President Bush’s tax relief plan in the Senate. That bill ultimately sent $1.3 trillion back to the hard-working men and women who earned it.
That tax relief has been flowing through the economy. People have been using it to pay the bills or get the kids some new clothes or start a little savings plan for themselves. Small businesses are investing in new equipment and expanding their operations. As a result, this economy is on the upswing.
We’ve had nine consecutive quarters of economic growth. And in the second half of last year the economy grew at its fastest rate in nearly 20 years.
Jobs are coming back, too. More than 350,000 jobs were created in the last six months, and more are on the way.
These are good signs, and I don’t want John Kerry to roar into the White House raising taxes and rolling back the progress the American people have made.
John Kerry is also out of step with our party’s greatest leaders on foreign policy.
I remember when most Democrats were in favor of projecting America’s power abroad, because we believed that America was a great force for good over evil.
President Harry S. Truman recognized early on that Communism was a source of evil and a danger to our way of life – and he acted forcefully to meet the threat.
In 1946, even before the Soviet threat was clearly evident, President Truman forced a showdown with Stalin that pushed the Red Army out of occupied positions in Iran.
In 1947, when Communist insurgents threatened to overthrow the government of Greece, Truman rallied America and the world, announcing the new Truman Doctrine. He committed $400 million to protect ‘free peoples’ from ‘totalitarian regimes.’
From 1948 to 1949 President Truman stood down the Soviet blockade of West Berlin – not by appeasement, but by flying in supplies and saving the city from Soviet encroachment. Thanks to his actions, West Berlin became a beacon of hope and liberty for people in the Eastern Bloc who were yearning for freedom.
And in 1950 President Truman committed U.S. troops to defend South Korea and drive the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel. While Harry Truman was on the watch, free people everywhere knew they had a friend in the United States of America.
For decades, the Democratic Party maintained peace through strength. We worked with Republicans to ensure that freedom and democracy would not falter in the face of any threat.
These days it seems like some people in my party are motivated more by partisan politics than by national interest.
John Kerry has the wrong idea about how our country should respond to the threat of terrorism. He says the war on terror should be mainly a law enforcement action.
Now I know that an army of lawyers can be scary sometimes, but it does not compare to the Army of the United States – not to mention the Marine Corps, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, and all of our reservists and National Guardsmen who are fighting under the flag of the United States of America.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. I’m an old history professor and I know that when history teaches you a lesson, you ought to listen.
We tried John Kerry’s approach to fighting terror over the last decade.
I was disgusted when our government did nothing after terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.
I was amazed in 1996 when 19 U.S. servicemen were killed in the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia – and still, we did nothing.
In 1998 our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania came under attack, killing 224 people, and our only response was to fire a few missiles into an empty tent.
Is it any wonder that after a decade of weak-willed responses to terror, the terrorists thought we would never fight back?
I hate that it took the awful tragedy of September 11, 2001, to wake us up to reality. But I’m sure glad we did wake up. And I’m grateful that George W. Bush was leading America exactly when we needed a steel spine and a clear head in the White House.
President Bush immediately took the fight to the terrorists – clearing out their base of operations in Afghanistan and toppling one of their biggest fans in Iraq. It’s funny: The terrorists certainly realize that our efforts in Iraq are a major part of the war on terror, but some Democrats still don’t get it.
John Kerry has said that the United States should have waited for United Nations diplomats to decide when we could take action in Iraq, rather than standing up for our own right to protect our security and promote democracy.
But I can’t imagine the great Democratic Party leaders of past generations waiting with their hands in their pockets while a bunch of dithering diplomats decided the future of the world.
Remember it was President John F. Kennedy who told the world: ‘We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.’
I think John Kerry made the right decision when he voted to authorize the war in Iraq. But then he went out on the campaign trail and started spending too much time with Howard Dean. And he came back to Washington and voted against the $87 billion the troops need for protective armor, combat pay, and better health care. That’s the worst kind of indecisiveness, and the wrong leadership at this critical moment in history.
Today, because George W. Bush took decisive action in Iraq and Afghanistan, liberty is thriving as never before. Fifty million more people are living in freedom, including 25 million women and girls who can leave their homes, go to school and to work, and participate in the political process. That is a legacy of promoting liberty that all Americans can be proud of.
Throughout his presidency, George W. Bush has acted with integrity and a clear sense of purpose. He goes to work everyday thinking about what he can do to keep Americans safe and lay the foundation for prosperity all across our country. And he’s willing to work with anyone who will help him do it.
I’ve been proud to work with President Bush because he shares the same beliefs that support the foundation of my career in public service – and the same ideals that the greatest leaders of my party have held for decades.
I’ve got an old mantra that I pull out now and then: ‘It’s not whose team you’re on, it’s whose side you’re on.’
In this election, I’m on George Bush’s side because he’s on the side of the American people. I’m grateful for his service to America, and I’m confident that he’ll be re-elected in November.
May God bless our President, and may God bless America.
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