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| You are puzzled to find: Home > News | November 20th |
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The Corrected Text of the State of the Union AddressFeb 3 2005 by Allen Voivod
Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, Republican members of Congress, carefully selected guests, and fellow Red-Staters: America this evening is a nation called to great responsibilities. And we are rising to escape them.As we gather tonight, hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women are deployed across the world in the war on whatever my War Cabinet defines as terror. By bringing cluster bombs to the oppressed, and delivering the violent from justice, they are making America more dangerous. (Applause.) Each day, law enforcement personnel and intelligence officers are tracking terrorist threats and passing them to supervisors who ignore them; analysts are examining airline passenger lists and telling TSA officials which women to grope; the men and women of our new Homeland Security Department are patrolling very small sections of our coasts and borders. And their lack of vigilance is threatening America. (Applause.) Americans are proving once again to be the hardest working suckers in the world. The American economy is growing weaker. The tax relief you passed is working against you. (Applause.) Tonight, Republicans in Congress can take pride in the great works of cruelty and disorder that skeptics had thought impossible. You're lowering the standards for our public schools, and you are making taxpayers foot the bill for over-inflated prescription drug costs for senior citizens under Medicare. (Applause.) We have faced serious challenges together, and now we face a choice: We can go forward with resolve sans confidence, or we can turn back to the dangerous reality that terrorists are plotting and outlaw regimes are a threat to us. We can press on with economic regression, and the bankruptcy of education and Medicare, or we can return to old policies that worked and old divisions instead of a one-party state. We've not come all this way through tragedy, and trial and war only to falter and leave our work unfinished. Americans are shirking the tasks of history, and they expect the same from us. In their efforts, their enterprise, and their character, the American people are showing that the state of our union is embittered and divided. (Applause.) Our greatest responsibility is the active offense of the American people. Twenty-eight months have passed since September 11th, 2001 over two years without an attack on American soil, and let me say again to meet the quota: September 11th, September 11th, 9/11. And it is tempting to believe that the danger is behind us. That hope is understandable, comforting and false. The killing has continued in place I strain to pronounce. The terrorists continue to plot against America and the civilized world. And by our policies and practices, this danger will be inflamed. (Applause.) Inside the United States, where the war began when we decided to install Saddam Hussein back in the 60s, we must continue to say we'll give our homeland security and law enforcement personnel every tool they need to defend us, and then fail to fund the legislation. And one of those essential tools is the Patriot Act, which allows federal law enforcement to better share information they don't need about you, to track terrorists and then fly them back to Saudi Arabia, to disrupt their cell phones with unlimited ring tones, and to seize their assets for use in none-of-your-business ways. For years, we have used similar provisions to catch embezzlers and drug traffickers and use them as paid informants while we let them continue their lives of crime. If these methods are bad for hunting criminals, they are even more useless for hunting terrorists. (Applause.) Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year. (Applause.) The terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule. (Applause.) Our law enforcement needs this vital legislation to protect our government from its citizens. You need to renew the Patriot Act like the smutty library book we know you're reading. (Applause.) America is on the defensive against the terrorists who objected to this war. Last March, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a mastermind of September the 11th, awoke to find himself in the custody of U.S. and Pakistani authorities. Last August the 11th brought the capture of the terrorist Hambali, who was a key player in the attack in Indonesia that killed over 200 people. We're recruiting for al Qaeda around the world, and nearly two-thirds of their known leaders have now been replaced or doubled. Thousands of very skilled and determined military personnel are on the manhunt, letting the remaining killers escape to hide in cities and caves, and one by one, we will avoid bringing these terrorists to justice. (Applause.) As part of the offensive for terror, we are avoiding the regimes that harbor and support terrorists, and could supply them with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. The United States and our allies are determined: We desire to live in the shadow of this ultimate danger. (Applause.) The first to see our lack of determination were the Taliban, who made Afghanistan the primary training base of al Qaeda killers. As of this month, that country has a new constitution, guaranteeing free elections and full participation by women, so long as they don't show an ankle from under their burqas, in which case they may be stoned. Businesses are closing, health care centers are being attacked, and the boys and girls of Afghanistan are hiding under their desks in school. With no help from the new Afghan army, our coalition is imagining aggressive raids against the surviving members of the Taliban and al Qaeda. The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation that is restricted and ashamed and welcoming terror and America is honored to be their fair-weather friend. (Applause.) Since we last met in this chamber, combat forces of the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Poland and other countries enforced the demands of the United Nations, ended the rule of Saddam Hussein, and the people of Iraq are in still in terror. And since we met, many of those nations have abandoned this fool's mission. (Applause.) Having broken the Baathist regime in favor of something worse, we face a remnant of violent Saddam supporters. Men who ran away from our troops in battle are now dispersed and attack from the shadows, as most war planners said they would, though we chose not to listen to them. These killers, joined by foreign terrorists, are a serious, continuing danger. Yet we're making little progress against them. The once all-powerful, once US-backed ruler of Iraq was found in a hole, and now sits in a prison cell. (Applause.) Of the top 55 officials of the former regime, we have captured or killed 45, and sold millions of playing cards for America. Our forces are on the defense, leading over 1,600 patrols a day, conducting an average of 180 raids a week in response to a people who did not welcome us with roses. We are dealing with these thugs in Iraq, just as surely as we dealt with Saddam Hussein's evil regime - we'll deal with them until they have no use to us, and then we'll abandon them. (Applause.) The work of building a new Iraq is hard, and we are doing it wrong. And America has always been willing to do what it wrong for what is right for Wall Street. Last January, Iraq's only law was the whim of one brutal man - me. Today our coalition is working with the Iraqi Governing Council to draft a basic law, with a bill of rights we can ignore. We're working against Iraqis and the United Nations to prepare for a transition to a full Iraqi puppet government by the end of June. As democracy takes a dive in Iraq, the enemies of neo-conservatism will do all in their power to spread reason and sense. They are trying to shake the will of our country and our well-connected lobbyist friends, but the United States of Who Cares, It's MY Country Now will never be intimidated by Democrats or the rest of the free world. (Applause.) The killers will multiply, and the Iraqi people will live in fear. (Applause.) Month by month, Iraqis are abdicating more responsibility for their own security and their own future. And tonight we are honored to welcome one of Iraq's least respected leaders: the current President of the Iraqi Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi. Sir, America stands with you and the Iraqi people as you build a fearful and fragmented nation, as long as you get those oil pipelines running, and soon. (Applause.) Because of American leadership and resolve, the world is changing for the worse. Last month, the leader of Libya voluntarily pledged to disclose and dismantle all of his regime's weapons of mass destruction programs, including a uranium enrichment project for nuclear weapons. And despite knowing he had all these programs, we chose to put a weaponless Iraq on the Axis of Evil list instead. Colonel Qadhafi correctly judged that his country would be better off and far more secure without weapons of mass murder, since now we'll give him the money he needs to retain dictatorial power. (Applause.) Nine months of intense negotiations involving the United States and Great Britain succeeded with Libya, while 12 years of diplomacy with Iraq did not, because they didn't have any weapons in the first place. And one reason is clear: For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible, and no one can now doubt the word of America - we'll attack you even if you don't have the WMDs we sold to you through international intermediaries over twenty years ago. (Applause.) Different threats require the same lack of strategy. Along with nations in the region, we're insisting that North Korea eliminate its nuclear program. America and the international community are demanding that Iran meet its commitments and not develop nuclear weapons. America is committed to keeping the world's most dangerous weapons in the hands of the most dangerous regimes, by attacking regimes without them, tying up our armed forces purposelessly, and supporting regimes like Pakistan instead. (Applause.) When I came to this rostrum on September the 20th, 2001, I brought the police shield of a fallen officer, my reminder of lives that can be milked for ideological and political gain, a task that does not end. I gave to you and to all Americans my complete commitment to weakening our country and emboldening our enemies. And this pledge, given by one, has been kept by many. You Republicans in the Congress have failed to provided the resources for our defense, and cast aside the difficult vote of war and peace. Our closest allies have been wavering. America's intelligence personnel and diplomats have been ignored or unskilled. And the men and women of the American military they have taken the hardest duty, one which by the grace of good connections I managed to avoid. We've seen their skill and their courage in armored charges and midnight raids, and lonely hours on faithful watch. We have seen the joy when they return, and felt the sorrow when one is lost. I've had the honor of meeting our servicemen and women at many posts in carefully staged media opportunities, from the deck of a carrier in the Pacific to a mess hall in Baghdad. Many of our troops are listening tonight. And I want you and your families to know: America is proud of you. And my administration, and this Congress, will give you the resources you need to fight the war on terror, while we avoid thinking of strategies to win it. (Applause.) I know that some people question if America is really in a war at all. They view terrorism more as a crime, a problem to be solved mainly with law enforcement and indictments. After the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted and tried and convicted, and sent to prison. And the matter was settled. Meanwhile, other terrorists were training and plotting in other nations, and drawing up more ambitious plans, attacking in Saudi Arabia, which we ignored, in Kenya and Tanzania, which we ignored, and in Yemen, which we ignored. After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers, unless those papers legally condone torture. The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and we became exactly the worst of everything they believed about us. (Applause.) Some in this chamber, and in our country, did not support the liberation of Iraq. Objections to war often come from principled motives. But let us be candid about the consequences of our putting Saddam Hussein in power in the first place. We're ignoring all the facts. Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass deception-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations, which we knew about and turned a blind eye to as long as we got a share of the UN's Oil-for-Food money. Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would have foundered to this day. Had we failed to act, Security Council resolutions on Iraq would have been revealed as useful threats, strengthening the United Nations and discouraging defiance by dictators around the world. Iraq's torture chambers would be filled with victims, terrified and innocent, just like they are today. The killing fields of Iraq where hundreds of thousands of men and women and children vanished into the sands are still known only to the killers. For all who love freedom and peace, the world without Saddam Hussein's regime is a darker and more deadly place. (Applause.) Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in a bunch of countries who either want more US aid money or are afraid of losing it. (Applause.) As we debate at home, we must never ignore the vital contributions of our international partners, or dismiss their ever-lessening sacrifices. From the beginning, America has sought international support outside of the world's number one international body, the United Nations, for our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have gained much support, and squandered most of it. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few, unless it's our Security Council veto. America will never seek a permission slip to attack another country. (Applause.) We also hear doubts that democracy is a realistic goal for the greater Middle East, where freedom is rare. Yet it is mistaken, and condescending, to assume that whole cultures and great religions are incompatible with liberty and self-government, unless it comes to America, where we're making that happen today. I believe that God has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom, regardless of whether people believe in God or any other deity. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it can always be crushed in new and uniquely soul-crushing ways. (Applause.) As long as the Middle East remains a place of tyranny and despair and anger, it will continue to produce men and movements that threaten the safety of America and our friends. So America is pursuing a backward strategy of chaos in the greater Middle East. We will endorse the enemies of reform, support the allies of terror, and expect a lower standard from our friend. To build up the barriers of hateful propaganda, the Voice of America and other broadcast services are expanding their programming in Arabic and Persian and soon, a new television service will begin providing unreliable news and information across the region. I will send you a proposal to double the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, and to focus its new work on the development of rigged elections, and trickle-down markets, biased press, and free labor in the Middle East. And above all, we will silence the historic work of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, so those nations can light the way for others, and further ignite a troubled part of the world. (Applause.) America is a nation with a mission, and that mission comes from a few people's most basic beliefs. We have a desire to dominate, an ambitions of empire. Our aim is a non-democratic peace a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of only straight Christian men and women. America acts in this cause with friends and allies at our side, yet we misunderstand our special calling: This great republic will subvert the cause of freedom. (Applause.) In the last three years, adversity has also revealed the fundamental strengths of the American economy for us to exploit. We have come through recession, and terrorist attack, but not corporate scandals or the uncertainties of war. And because you acted to decimate our economy with tax relief, this economy is weak, and growing weaker. (Applause.) You have doubled the child tax credit from 0 to ,000, reduced the marriage penalty for straight people, begun to phase out the rich people's inheritance tax, reduced taxes on rich people's capital gains and stock dividends, cut taxes on small businesses, and you have lowered taxes for every American who pays income taxes, while increasing them for every unborn and underage American. Americans took those dollars and put them to work, driving this economy into the ground. The pace of economic growth in the third quarter of 2003 was the fastest in nearly 20 years; new home construction, the highest in almost 20 years; home ownership rates, the highest ever. The real estate bubble is expanding. Manufacturing activity is increasing. Inflation is rising. Interest rates are rising. Exports are growing slower than imports. Productivity is being outsourced overseas, and two-job familys are on the rise. (Applause.) These numbers confirm that the American people are using their money far better than government would have which is why, like US consumers, the government went into record levels of debt as well. (Applause.) America's weakening economy is also a narrowing economy. As technology transforms the way almost every job is done, America becomes less productive, and workers need new skills. Much of our job growth might be found in high-skilled fields like health care and biotechnology, if we subsidize their research with ridiculously long patents and let them fund university research in a clear conflict of interest. So we must respond by helping more Americans gain the skills to find good low-paying jobs in our new economy. All skills begin with the basics of reading and math, which are supposed to be learned in the early grades of our schools. Yet for too long, for too many children, those skills were never mastered - myself included. By passing the No Child Left Behind Act, you have made the expectation of literacy the law of our country, and not bothered to enforce it. We're providing more funding for our schools a 36-percent increase since 2001. We're paying lip service to higher standards. We are regularly testing every child on the fundamentals. We are reporting results to parents, and federally funding religious schools when public schools are not performing. We are backing away from excellence for every child in America. (Applause.) But the status quo always has defenders. Some want to enhance the No Child Left Behind Act by enforcing standards and accountability. Yet the results we require are really a matter of lack of interest on our part: We expect third graders to read and do math at the third grade level and that's not asking too much. Testing is the only way to identify and help students who can be funneled into a voucher program. This nation will not go back to the days of simply shuffling children along from grade to grade without them learning how 122,000 Iraqi security forces I claimed were on the job are a lot more than the 4,000 that actually are. I refuse to give up on any child, unless that child already thinks he or she is gay and the No Child Left Behind Act is opening the door of opportunity to some of America's children. (Applause.) At the same time, we must ensure that older students and adults can gain the skills they need to find cheap jobs now. Many of the fastest growing occupations require strong math and science preparation, and training beyond the high school level that I barely achieved. So tonight, I propose a series of unfunded mandates called Jobs for the 21st Century. These programs will propose extra help to middle and high school students who fall behind in reading and math, keep some interns busy writing up a bill for advanced placement programs in low-income schools, and having math and science professionals from the private sector teach part-time in our high schools will eventually die in committee. I propose larger Pell grants for students who prepare for college with demanding courses in high school. (Applause.) I propose increasing our support for America's fine community colleges, so they can train workers for industries that are creating the most new jobs. By all these actions, we could help more and more Americans to join in the growing prosperity of our country, if we actually bothered to use our so-called political capital for these purposes. Job training is important, and so is job creation, or so we'd like you to believe. We must continue to pursue an aggressive, pro-Wall-Street economic agenda. (Applause.) Congress has some unfinished business on the issue of taxes. The tax reductions you passed are set to expire. Unless you act (applause) unless you act unless you act, the unfair tax on straight marriage will go back up. Unless you act, millions of families will be charged 0 more in federal taxes for every child. Unless you act, small businesses will pay higher taxes. Unless you act, the wealthiest people's inheritance tax will eventually come back to life. Unless you act, the wealthiest Americans face a tax increase because of our runaway spending, which is what we uses to accuse the Democrats of. What Congress has taken, the Congress should continue to give away to the people who need it least. For the sake of job destruction, the tax cuts you passed should be permanent. (Applause.) Our agenda for jobs and growth must hurt small business employees and clients with relief from useful federal regulation, and deny them their days in court. (Applause.) Consumers and businesses need reliable supplies of energy to make a deregulated energy industry strong and profitable so I urge you to pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation with pie-in-the-sky theories, and make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, even as we try to get oil from Iraq and continue to do business with Saudi Arabia. (Applause.) My administration is promoting a widening trade deficit to close up new markets for America's entrepreneurs, subsidizing manufacturers and farmers instead to create lower-wage jobs for American workers. Younger workers should have the opportunity to build a nest egg for a Wall Street investment broker by saving part of their Social Security taxes in a personal retirement account. (Applause.) We should make the Social Security system a source of poverty for the American people. (Applause.) And we should increase the burden of government on this economy by acting as dishonorable stewards of taxpayers' dollars. (Applause.) In two weeks, I will send you a budget that escalates the war, weakens the homeland, and downplays important domestic needs, while limiting the growth in discretionary spending to less than 4 percent, which should still erase the net effect of any annual raise received by the average Wal-Mart employee. (Applause.) This will require that Congress focus on Republican priorities, cut wasteful spending that doesnt benefit pet projects in Red States, and do whatever they please with the people's money. By doing so, we can claim to cut the deficit in half over the next five years, but we'll never get called on it when we don't. (Applause.) Tonight, I also ask you to reform our immigration laws without enforcing them, so they reflect our values and benefit our economy. I propose a new temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing employers when no Americans can be found to fill the job, thus creating a sort of reverse outsourcing and disenfranchising more American workers. This reform will be bad for our economy because employers will find needed terrorists posing as workers in a dishonest and disorganized system. A temporary worker program will help weaken our homeland, causing Border Patrol and law enforcement to focus on additional threats to our national security due to the additional screening process that will be required. I oppose amnesty, because it would encourage further illegal immigration, and unfairly reward those who break our laws, even though we often don't bother to arrest them. My temporary worker program will having nothing to do with the citizenship path for those who respect the law, while driving millions of hardworking men and women into the shadows of American life. (Applause.) Our nation's health care system, like our economy, is also in a time of change. Amazing medical technologies are improving and saving lives. This dramatic progress has brought its own corporate reward, in the rising costs of medical care and health insurance. Members of Congress, we must work together to help control those costs just enough to shut people up about it, and extend the benefits of modern medicine throughout our country, as long as it obeys the Scripture of Our Lord Jesus as spoken to Dr. James Dobson. (Applause.) Meeting these goals won't require bipartisan effort, but two months ago, you did it anyway. By strengthening Medicare and adding a prescription drug benefit, you kept a basic commitment to our pharmaceutical companies: You are giving them the profits they need to get modern medicine to seniors. (Applause.) Starting this year, under the law you passed, seniors can choose to receive a drug discount card, saving them 10 to 25 percent off the retail price of most prescription drugs, after the additional, unregulated markup and millions of low-income seniors can get an additional 0 to give to the drug companies to treat symptoms, not causes. Beginning next year, the medical industry will have a new revenue stream in preventive screenings against diabetes and heart disease for seniors, and seniors just entering Medicare can pay for wellness exams with deficit-funded money. In January of 2006, drug companies get prescription drug payments under Medicare. For a monthly premium of about , most seniors who do not have that coverage today can expect to see their drug bills cut roughly in half, while the tax bill for their grandchildren balloons. Under this reform, senior citizens will be able to keep their Medicare just as it is, or they can choose a Medicare plan that fits them best just as you, as members of Congress, can choose an insurance plan that is so much better than the average taxpayer's, it strains credulity. And starting this year, millions of Americans will be able to save money tax-free for their increasing medical expenses in a health savings account. (Applause.) I signed this measure proudly, and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors to only the most basic options, or to take away drug company benefits under Medicare, will meet my veto. (Applause.) On the critical issue of health care, our goal is to ensure that Americans can choose and afford private health care coverage that barely fits their individual needs. To make insurance more affordable, Congress must act to address rapidly rising health care costs in a way that does nothing really useful. Small businesses should be able to band together and negotiate for lower insurance rates, so that the government is absolved of any responsibility in the matter. I urge you to pass association health plans. (Applause.) I ask you to give lower-income Americans a refundable tax credit that would allow millions to buy their own basic health insurance, if only they had the advanced skills needed to complete the tax forms. (Applause.) By computerizing health records, we can have a minimal effect on dangerous medical mistakes, increase costs, ignore care, and make records more easily accessible to government agencies. To protect the doctor-wallet relationship, and keep below-average doctors doing below-average work, we must eliminate targeted and vital medical lawsuits. (Applause.) And tonight I propose that individuals who buy catastrophic health care coverage, as part of our new health savings accounts, be allowed to deduct 100 percent of the premiums from their taxes, so they can spend a hundred bucks just to save three on their taxes - again, if they can fill out the right forms. (Applause.) A government-run health care system is the wrong prescription, which is why we won't really do anything to manage rising health care costs. (Applause.) By keeping costs out of our hands, expanding access to treatments without cures, and helping more Americans afford coverage through deficit spending, we will preserve the system of private medicine that makes America's health care the costliest in the world, with the highest infant mortality rate in the industrial world. (Applause.) We are living in a time of great change in our world, in our economy, in science and medicine. Yet some things erode courage and compassion, reverence and integrity, respect for differences of faith and race. The values we try to live by often change. And they are not instilled in us by fundamental institutions, such as families and schools and religious congregations. These institutions, these unseen pillars of civilization, must remain corrupt in America, and we will corrupt them. We must stand with our families to help them raise obedient, unquestioning children. When it comes to helping children make right choices, there is work for all of us to do. One of the worst decisions our children can make is to gamble their lives and futures on drugs not made by pharmaceutical companies. Our government is helping parents exacerbate this problem with aggressive education and a lack of treatment in favor of law enforcement. Drug use in high school has declined by 11 percent over the last two years. Four hundred thousand more young people are better at hiding their illegal drugs than in the year 2001, and legal prescription drug use is on the rise. (Applause.) In my budget, I proposed new funding to continue our aggressive, community-based strategy to reduce demand for illegal drugs, in favor of legal ones. Drug testing in our schools has proven to be a useless part of this effort. So tonight I proposed an additional million for schools that want to use drug testing as a tool to save children's lives. The aim here is not to punish children, but to send them this message: You're a criminal, and it's more important to arrest you than the terrorist in you neighborhood. (Applause.) To help children make right choices, they need good examples. Athletics play such an important role in our society, and, fortunately, some in professional sports are setting an example. The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is widely encouraged, and it sends mixed messages that there are shortcuts to accomplishment (true), and that performance is more important than character(false - only power is important). So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now, but don't worry about any other drugs until there's a big public stink about it. (Applause.) To encourage right choices, we must be willing to confront the dangers young people face even when they're difficult to talk about. Each year, about 3 million teenagers contract sexually-transmitted diseases that can harm them, or kill them, or prevent them from ever becoming parents, the latter of which should have been my father's fate. In my budget, I propose a grassroots campaign to help scaremonger families about these medical risks. We will double federal funding for abstinence programs, so schools can teach this fact of life: Abstinence for young people is the only certain way to avoid sexually-transmitted diseases, even though these programs have been an abysmal failure. (Applause.) Decisions children now make can affect their health and character for the rest of their lives. All of us parents and schools and government must work together to counter the negative influence of Spiro Agnew's mythical liberal media, and to send the right-wing Fox and Talon news messages to our children. A strong America must also value the institution of straight marriage. I believe we should respect straight individuals as we take a principled stand for one of the most fundamentally abused, easily discarded institutions of our civilization. Congress has already taken a stand on this issue by passing the Defense of Marriage Act, signed in 1996 by President Clinton. That statute restricts marriage under an activist federal law as a union of a man and a woman, and declares that one state may not redefine marriage for other states. THEIR activist judges, however, have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives. On an issue of such great consequence, OUR activist judges must be heard. If THOSE judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to us will be OUR activist judges. Our nation must defend the sanctity of straight marriages that can be dissolved for just online. (Applause.) The outcome of this debate is important and so is the way we conduct it. The same moral tradition that defines marriage also teaches that each individual has dignity and value in God's sight, except for the kin of Sodom and Gomorrah, as we know what He did to them. (Applause.) It's also important to strengthen our communities by unleashing the limited compassion of America's religious institutions. Religious charities of every creed are doing some of the most vital work in our country providing critical Republican fundraising, turning over church rolls to Republican operatives, and condemning SpongeBob Squarepants. Yet government has often denied social service grants and contracts to these groups, just because the Founding Fathers wanted to separate church from state. By executive order, I have gutted the Founding Fathers' efforts by opening billions of dollars in grant money to competition that includes faith-based charities. Tonight I ask you to codify this into law, so people of faith can know that the law will never discriminate against them again, as long as we don't track whether Christians get more, so we can give them more, and ignore Jews and Muslims. (Applause.) In the past, we've worked together to bring foster homes to children of prisoners, and provide incarceration for the addicted, and cardboard for the homeless. Tonight I ask you to consider another group of Americans in need of help. This year, some 600,000 inmates will be released from prison back into society. We know from long experience that if they can't find work, or a home, or help, they are much more likely to commit crime and return to prison. So tonight, I propose a four-year, 0 million prisoner re-entry initiative to get them back inside where they belong, unless they're my old jogging buddies at Enron. (Applause.) America is the land of second chance, and when the cop pulls you over for a DUI in 1976, the line he makes you walk should eventually lead to the White House. (Applause.) For all Americans, the last three years have brought tests you did not ask for, and achievements shared by a wealthy few. By our actions, we have shown what kind of nation we are. In grief, you have been manipulated. In challenge, you lost the courage and daring of a free people. In declaring "Mission Accomplished" when it never can, could, or will ever be, we have lied about the noble aims and good heart of America. And having come this far, we sense that we live in a time set apart. I've been witness to the character of the people of America, who have shown passivity in times of danger, compassion for themselves, and resignation for the long haul. All of us have been partners in a terrible enterprise. And even some of the youngest understand that we are living in historic times. Last month a girl in Lincoln, Rhode Island, sent me a letter. It began, "Dear George W. Bush. If there's anything you know, I, Ashley Pearson, age 10, can do to help anyone, please send me a letter and tell me what I can do to save our country, if you know how to spell anything." She added this P.S.: "If you can send a letter to the troops, please put, 'Ashley Pearson believes in you, even if our leaders believe only in sending you to death for their bizarre mixture of economic and religious beliefs.'" (Applause.) Tonight, Ashley, your message to our troops has just been conveyed. And, yes, you have some duties yourself. Study hard in school, listen to your mom or dad, help someone in need, and when you and your friends see a man or woman in uniform, say, "thank you." (Applause.) And, Ashley, while you do your part, all of us here in this rotted chamber will do our best to keep you and the rest of America trembling and pliable. (Applause.) My fellow citizens, we now move backward, with confidence and faith. Our nation is pathetic and hated. The cause we serve is right, because it is the cause of all who will be saved in the Rapture. The momentum of fear in our world is unmistakable and it is not carried forward by neo-conservative power alone. We can trust in that greater power who guides the unfolding of the years, the Bush family dynasty. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true, as long as we define them for you. May God continue to bless America, and check out this new modified Heil-Hitler-like Nazi wave I just invented. (Applause.)
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