Rarely was the question asked: Can you read? Or can you write? Or can you add and can you subtract?

Mother is coming out of the hospital. I hope they don't put this on TV, but she's a tough old bird — whose spirits are soaring high.

You know, when you give a man more money in his pocket — in this case, a woman more money in her pocket to expand a business, it — they build new buildings. And when somebody builds a new building, somebody has got to come and build the building. And when the building expanded, it prevented additional opportunities for people to work.

The principle is, is that tax cuts inspire investment, encourage consumption and savings. In other words, the more money you have, as opposed to the government having, the more likely it is the local economies will grow. That's why I brought up the example of the S-CHIP corporation.

I just vetoed a bill today, and I want to explain to you why. It's called S-CHIP — Children's Health Insurance Policy.

In other words, when they say, well, poor children aren't being covered in America, if that's what you're hearing on your TV screens.

It is estimated by — here's the thing, just so you know, this program expands coverage, federal coverage up to families earning $83,000 a year. That doesn't sound poor to me.

I believe it's in our interests to help relieve the suffering of HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa. It's in our interests to do so. It's part of the belief system that says, you know, that we have obligations and duties to ourself. No, by relieving suffering overseas, not only do you lift the moral sights of our country, but it recognizes the reality of the world in which we live.

There's a lot of action in Washington, D.C., believe me, and I've got a lot of decisions to make. And so I delegate to good people. I always tell Condi Rice, I want to remind you, Madam Secretary, who has the PhD and who was the C-student. And I want to remind you who the advisor is and who the President is. I got a lot of PhD-types and smart people around me who come into the Oval Office and say, Mr. President, here's what's on my mind. And I listen carefully to their advice. But having gathered the device, I decide, you know, I say, this is what we're going to do.

What's amazing about it is that when my dad was 18, he signed up to fight the Japanese. They were the sworn enemy of the United States of America. Thousands of people died in that conflict.

They attacked America — the last time we were attacked, by the way, prior to September the 11th was Pearl Harbor.

We import about 60 percent of our oil from overseas — fortunately, most of it from — a lot of it from Canada and Mexico.

Your government is spending a fair amount of money, of your money, to research cellulosic ethanol. And that's a fancy word for using corn chips or switchgrass to be able to be the feedstock for new ethanol production.

My view is this, that if you work hard and you want to go to college, you can find all the help you want. Now, some people don't like repaying loans, but that's part of life.

My job is a decision-making job. And as a result, I make a lot of decisions.

You know, I'm a really lucky guy to have a wife who is patient enough to put up with me as President of the United States, is wise enough to seize the moment, and is compassionate enough to worry about the lives of our fellow citizens. She's a fabulous First Lady.

I believe in that old Texas adage, if you don't stand for something, you don't believe in anything. And I believe in some certain principles that I hold inviolate, such as, there is an Almighty, and a great gift of that Almighty to each man, woman and child on the face of Earth is liberty and freedom.

You talk about the farmer out there who's worried about makin' crop, that 2,200, dollars, means a lot. It may sound small to the, to the you know, the opiners in Washington, but you ask the average American family, would they raather have the 2,200 dollars to spend on their own, or would they raather send it to Washington, D.C., they'll say, let me have my money, I can do a good job with it.

When you find an inner-city kid that may not have the right curriculum to get he or she up to the grade level at the 4th grade, let's solve it now. Let's not wait. No Child Left Behind is workin', and it needs to be reauthorized by the United States Congress.

You know, when you have resentment and anger, that breeds hatred. That breeds recruiting grounds for people to become a suicider. Imagine the mentality of somebody willing to kill for an ideology that just doesn't — is not hopeful, and yet I believe a lot of it has to do with the fact that parts of the world breed resentment.

And there's some good people in our country who believe we should cut and run [from Iraq]. They're not bad people when they say that. They're decent people. I just happen to believe they're wrong. And they're wrong for this reason. This would be a defeat for the United States in a key battleground in the global war on terror. It would create a — leaving before we complete our mission would create a terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East, a country with huge oil reserves that the terrorist network would be willing to use to extract economic pain from those of us who believe in freedom. If we were to leave before the mission is complete, it would hurt U.S. credibility. Who would want to stand with the United States of America if we didn't complete the mission, and a mission that can be completed and will be completed? If we cut and run, if we don't complete the mission, what would that say to those brave men and women who have volunteered to wear the uniform of the United States of America? If we leave before the mission is complete, if we withdraw, the enemy will follow us home.

I bet you, in 1949, 1950, if somebody had stood up and said, you know, I bet one of these days an American President is going to take the Japanese Prime Minister to visit the heartland, they'd have said, man, you are nuts. It's interesting, isn't it, that the Prime Minister of a country with which we had a mighty war, thousands lost their lives — as a matter of fact, it took us, I don't know how long, a decade or so to even get racial slurs out of our vocabulary, because of the enmity that arose as a result of fighting the Japanese.

But we want an education system to educate every child. And here's our vision of how it's done. First, you must have leadership that sets high standards. It's amazing what happens when you have low standards. Guess what happens. You get low results. It's what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. If you don't have high standards, you get lousy results, particularly in some neighborhoods. And that's unacceptable to a person like Lynn Swann and me.

REPORTER 1: Since the inception of the Iraqi war, I'd like to know the approximate total of Iraqis who have been killed. And by Iraqis I include civilians, military, police, insurgents, translators.
DUBYA: How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war? I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We've lost about 2,140 of our own troops in Iraq. Yes.
REPORTER 2: Mr. President, thank you —
DUBYA: I'll repeat the question. If I don't like it, I'll make it up.

The war on terror will take many turns, and the enemy must be defeated on many — on every battlefield, from the streets of Western cities to the mountains of Afghanistan, to the tribal regions of Pakistan, to the islands of Southeast Asia and to the Horn of Africa. Yet the terrorists have made it clear that Iraq is the central front in their war against humanity, so we must recognize Iraq is the central front in the war on terror.

The United Nations had declared in more than 10 — I can't remember the exact number of resolutions — that disclose, or disarm, or face serious consequences. I mean, there was a serious international effort to say to Saddam Hussein, you're a threat. And the 9/11 attacks extenuated that threat, as far as I — concerned.

And yet, 60 years ago, my dad fought against the Japanese — many of your relatives did, as well. They were the sworn enemy of the United States. I find it amazing — I don't know if you find it amazing — I find it amazing that I sit down with this guy [this guy = Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi], strategizing about how to make the world a more peaceful place when my dad and others fought him.

The civilized world knows very well that other fanatics in history, from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot, consumed whole nations in war and genocide before leaving the stage of history. Evil men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken very seriously — and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply. ...We didn't ask for this global struggle, but we're answering history's call with confidence, and with a comprehensive strategy. ...State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a long history of collaboration with terrorists, and they deserve no patience from the victims of terror. ...By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made incredible political progress — from tyranny, to liberation, to national elections, to the ratification of a constitution — in the space of two-and-a-half years. ...While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. ...With the rise of a deadly enemy and the unfolding of a global ideological struggle, our time in history will be remembered for new challenges and unprecedented dangers. ...Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision ...[We] do know the love of freedom is the mightiest force of history, and we do know the cause of freedom will once again prevail.

Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war.

As your President, it seems like to make sense to me to say, if we treat you this way, you treat us — that's what fair trade is all about.

I'm sorry my wife isn't here. Yes, I know, most people are sorry — she's not here instead of — she's here — she's not here instead of me. But she is doing great. I'm a lucky man when Laura said, I do. She is a fabulous First Lady, a great mom and a great wife.

Congresswoman Melissa Hart, thank you for being here. ...Melissa happens to be a board of this community college system.

Perhaps the most important reason to put me back in is so that Laura will be the First Lady for four more years. ...We were campaigning together tomorrow.

And a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your Commander-in-Chief.

September the 11th changed me. I remember the day I was in the — at Ground Zero, on September the 4th, 2001. It's a day I will never forget.

If you're feeling healthy, like I'm feeling healthy these days, don't get in line for the flu shot.

I am sure many of you stayed up to watch the vice presidential debate last night. America saw two very different visions of our country, and two different hairdos. I didn't pick my Vice President for his hairdo. I picked him for his judgment, his experience.

My opponent is a tax-and-spend liberal. I'm a compassionate conservative.

After September the 11th, America had to assess every potential threat in a new light. Our nation awakened to an even greater danger, the prospect that terrorists who killed thousands with hijacked airplanes would kill many more with weapons of mass murder. We had to take a hard look at every place where terrorists might get those weapons. And one regime stood out, the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

And we've heard that rhetoric, haven't we, tax the rich? The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, to stick you with the tab.

Awfully tempting when you're coming down the pike to tell everybody what they want to hear. So they said, well, how are you going to pay for it? He [John Kerry] said, oh, that's simple, we'll just tax the rich. There's two problems with that. One is that you can't raise enough money by taxing the rich to pay for $2 trillion. There's a gap between what he promises and what he says he's going to do.

We will make sure our troops have all that is necessary to complete their missions. That's why I went to the Congress last September and proposed fundamental — supplemental funding, which is money for armor and body parts and ammunition and fuel.

Four years ago — well, none of us will ever forget that week when one era ended and another began. On September the 14th, 2001, I stood in the ruins of the Twin Towers. It's a day I'll never forget.

One good reason to put me back in there for four more years is so that Laura will be the First Lady. Thank you. I married well. What a fabulous woman she is.

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is 5.1 percent. That's good news for people who are trying to find jobs.

I went to the United Nations and said, he's [Saddam Hussein is] a threat. And they agreed with the fact that he was a threat, by a 15 to nothing vote in the United Nations Security Council. See, the world spoke. Not only America speak, the world spoke.

People were nervous during the recession. Then we got attacked, and I'm going to talk a little bit about making America safer. But we got attacked on September 11th. It hurt our economy. In other words, you're in a recession, then we have an attack.

I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job.

And today, I'm able to sit down with the Prime Minister of Japan and discuss key issues like North Korea. In other words, a former enemy — former enemies sit at a table together and say, how can we work to keep the peace, because there were people that preceded me that had great faith in the ability of freedom to change societies.

This disease leaves suffering and orphans and fear wherever it reaches. Every man and woman and child who suffers from this addiction, from the streets of Philly to the villages of Africa, is a child of God who deserves our love and our help.

Given the recent increase in violence, we'll maintain our troop level at the current 138,000 as long as necessary. This has required extended duty for the 1st Armored Division and the 2nd Light Calvary Regiment.

Under the dictator, prisons like Abu Gar — reb — were symbols of death and torture. That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and "disregardered" our values. America will fund the construction of a modern, maximum security prison. When that prison is completed, detainees at Abu Garomp will be relocated. Then, with the approval of the Iraqi government, we will demolish the Abu Garab prison, as a fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning.

The United Nations Security Council looked at the intelligence and said, Saddam is a threat. And so, for about the — I can't remember how many times they said it, but they said, disarm. See, you're a threat. Disarm. There's a reason why a lot of people made the conclusion. It was not only based upon intelligence, it was based upon the fact that he hated America, that he's willing to pay suiciders to go kill people in Israel, that he actually used weapons of mass destruction on his own people.

I told the story, I think, at one of these endless press conferences I had last week — where — I love them, of course — where — where I had dinner with Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. And it was at that dinner that we were talking about the situation in North Korea. And it dawned on me during the course of the conversation with my friend that, if we hadn't got it right after World War II, would I have been having this conversation with the Prime Minister about a common threat we share? And it probably wouldn't have. If we hadn't secured the peace in a proper way after World War II, I don't think — maybe I'll be wrong — but I don't think I would have been having the very kind of conversation I was having with Prime Minister Koizumi.

Freedom frightens people who are terrorists.

You see, what that meant is — if you got a wire tap by court order — and, by the way, everything you hear about requires court order, requires there to be permission from a FISA court, for example. ...And they're an important tool for those who are on the front line of using necessary means, with court order, to find these terrorists before they hurt us, look, what I'm telling you is — is that the Patriot Act made it easier for people we've tasked to protect America. That's what we want. We want people to have the tools necessary to do the job we expect them to do.

It's hard to be a manufacturer in the state of Pennsylvania if you're worried about where your next energy is coming from.

We had some CEOs that weren't honest with their shareholders and their employees. And we passed tough laws that said, we're not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America. You're now beginning to see on your TV screens what we're talking about. People are being held to account. And that hurt our economy.

There's other things we need to do, as well. We need to worry about the cost of health care.

Alphonso and I have set a job. We want to close the minority homeownership gap in America. We want more people owning their own home, and we want more of our minorities owning their own home, as well.

We got attacked by a bunch of cold-blooded killers. And the attack hurt. It hurt our psyche because we thought oceans could protect us. It hurt the fact — we lost a million jobs after September the 11th.

Homeownership is at the highest rate ever. That means there's more people ever in our history are able to say, "I own something. I own my own home." I went to Pearl's home and it was pretty special. Really special, wasn't it? She said, "This is my home." When I walked up the stairs, she didn't say this is anybody else's home, but her home. She said, "Would you come into my home, please."

DUBYA: Now, Judy is the co-founder of Genesis — is that an accurate statement?
JUDY MEMBERG: Yes, it is.
DUBYA: She's a social entrepreneur.
JUDY MEMBERG: I've never been called that, but okay.
DUBYA: It's a plus.

We want to make sure our wallets all across the country are healthy.

I'm so pleased to be able to say hello to Bill Scranton. He's one of the great Pennsylvania political families.

And the other lesson is that there are people who can't stand what America stands for, and desire to conflict great harm on the American people.

There are students, who go to school that are letting them down every day, and don't seem to improve.

Our opportunity in society must also be a compassionate society.

I've asked Congress to fund $100 million for the Compassionate Capital Fund. That's a fancy word for providing money for organizations like the Urban League to teach some of these small faith programs how to apply for grants, how to help manage and train their staffs.

And the time is getting worse. That's what people have got to understand up there in Washington or over there in Washington down there in Washington, whatever. Thought I was in Crawford for a minute.

There was a good news story in Mississippi. I went down there and — it wasn't because of me, it was because the doctors and the citizens understand the cost of a trial system gone array and they got themselves a law. And they got a medical liability law. They put caps, real caps.

It's a law that'll recognize that an affordable and accessible health care system can best be had if we limit the la — caps — put caps on non-economic and punitive damages. That's what it understands

Some mom fixing to have a baby wonders out loud — when she wonders out loud whether or not the doc is going to be there to deliver the baby, it's a — we heard a story, by the way, about that — it's a sad situation.

And the founding ideals of our nation and, in fact, the founding ideals of the political party I represent was, and remains today, the equal dignity and equal rights of every American.

[The terrorists] kind of ooch around the dark corners of the world and look out, peep out around the corner — in the meantime, send these suicide squads.

We've got another candidate on stage who we certainly hope she wins.

One of the reasons why prices is rising is because of frivolous and junk lawsuits against our medical community.

And what they didn't also understand is that here at home, the evil done to us is going to lead to a better America, is going to lead to a better America. Now, government can help — government can help have a better America. We have a good education system. We're working hard to achieve that. We need to make sure our medical systems are modern. Listen, medicine has changed. Medicare hadn't. Medicine has evolved. Medicare is essentially stuck in the past. For the sake of our seniors, for the sake of a better life, we need to modernize Medicare and make sure there's a prescription drug benefit for our seniors.

There's three different agencies down there — three agencies full of really fine people. You've got your Customs, your INF and your Border Patrol. Sometimes they have different strategies per sector along the border. They're wearing different uniforms.

So long as we love freedom, which we'll do forever, and so long as this enemy is — still stand, they're going to come and try to get us.

They've hijacked a great religion and they're willing to kill innocent people in the name of their sordid attitude about the future.

In the old days, you could count tanks and figure out how strong the enemy was. This is an enemy that hides in caves. They try to find the darkest cave, the deepest cave, and then they send youngsters to their suicidal deaths. It's a different kind of hater than we're used to.

I'm sure your kids, they're wondering, why would you hate America? We didn't do anything to anybody. Well, they hate America because we love freedom.

We love the fact that people can worship an almighty God in a free land, any way they choose to worship.

See, we value each human life as important. We don't try to distinguish — everybody has got worth in the eyes of the Almighty, as far as we're concerned in this nation.

I've asked the Congress to join me in creating a new homeland security department. And the reason I did is because I want to be able to come and, when I see the people, say our most important priority is to protect America, and therefore, I want all agencies involved with protecting America under one umbrella.

I want to thank Elaine Chao of my Cabinet, and Dave Lauriski, who is the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administrator, for being here. They tell me, Dave, you did a fabulous job.

For those who volunteered hour after hour to save a fellow citizens — somebody you didn't even know, but were willing to sacrifice on behalf of that citizen, thank you from grateful nation.

It was their determination to stick together and to comfort each other that really defines kind of a new spirit that's prevalent in our country, that when one of us suffer, all of us suffers.

Today, through sonograms and other technology, we can clearly — see clearly that unborn children are members of the human family, as well. They reflect our image, and they are created in God's own image.

The reason I'm — asked [these AmeriCorps workers] to join us here is because I want you to know, America can be saved one person at a time.

And that's another part of the spirit of America I want to herald, and that is the prayers that were said by thousands of your citizens — I mean, people from all walks of life. They didn't say, I'm a Republican, therefore, I get to pray, or I'm a Democrat, I pray. I don't care about either of them, I pray. Everybody prayed. A lot of people — if I say everybody, I don't know if everybody prayed. I can tell you, a lot prayed. A lot prayed for your safety, a lot prayed for your families. A lot pled to an almighty God that you were rescued. And thank God the prayers were answered.

But most of all, the spirit of America was represented by the courage of the nine — nine folks trapped below the earth. They had one sandwich and two bottles of water. These are people that had — had found an unshakable faith, not only in their fellow citizens and their families would be pulling for them, but faith in God.

A strong America is America based upon strong families.

The best of America was also represented in the technology and know-how of our mine safety folks — those who, on a moments notice, used their skill to devise a way to save life. Took a look at the situation, reacted to the environment, predicted what might happen miles below the earth, and responded.

I remember campaigning in Chicago one time, and the guy said, would you ever deficit spend? I said, well, only if we were at war, or the country was in recession, or there was a national emergency. I didn't realize we were going to get the trifecta.

One of my favorites. The only one I remember.

I know they understand the proper role of government. And that is that government can't make people love one another.

We understand that Pennsylvania, like the other states in our Union, are full of compassionate people. And the job of government is to serve as a catalyst to capture that compassion.

I mean, sometimes we've got a process-oriented world. We ought to be a results-oriented world. We ought to care less — we ought to care less about rules and regulations, and more about how we're helping people help themselves.

I mean, listen, Mom and Dad love children in the Muslim world just like we do in America, and they've got to understand that — that there are some common beliefs that we share that will make — and the Peace Corps is a good way to spread that message.

Part of having a secure homeland is to have a good airport system, that's safe for people to travel, an airport system that is inspecting bags by inspectors who are qualified to inspect bags.

You know, the enemy hit us, and they said, oh, this great country is going to wilt. They're not great, they're weak. I like to needle them by saying, they must have been watching too much daytime TV.

It's an honor to receive this award from such a fabulous organization as Little League Baseball and, on behalf of the presidency, thank you for what you do.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for walking across the street when you see somebody in your neighborhood who needs a helping hand.

For every fatal shooting, there are roughly three nonfatal shootings. Folks, this is unacceptable in America, We're going to do something about it.

We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

John and I both agree, and strongly agree, that if a shareholder, a stakeholder, a labor union member don't have the right to say where their money is being spending, on a campaign or an idea or on an issue, that shouldn't be spent.