Day 2 RNC 8/31/04: Notable Non-Keynote Speeches

Source: 2004 Republican National Convention http://www.gopconvention.com/cgi-data/speeches/files/dvof23hx84a8vte3d9s75lb50mby3nfm.shtml

Senator Bill Frist

Ten years ago, on my first day as a Senator, my dad, a family doctor in Tennessee for 50 years, paid me a visit.

As we sat in my new office, he said: "Son, the nameplate on your door reads William Frist.

Always remember you're a doctor. You're committed to healing and helping people.

It really should read, William Frist M.D."

Well, today the nameplate on the door of my Capitol office reads just that William Frist M.D. It's a constant reminder of my dad's advice: to work each day to better the life of every individual American.

And that, my friends, is what President George W. Bush has done -- particularly when it comes to health care.

He has won some huge victories to make health care cost less and be there when you need it.

So, let's talk about what that means for Americans, and what health care in America can become.

Health care is the lifeblood of our future, and it touches every life -- our grandparents, our parents, our children, you.

And when you need it, you want it to be reliable.

You want it to be affordable and lifelong.

You want it to reflect the dignity and the value of those you love. And you want it to be the best.

Let me remind you: in 2000 before someone borrowed his line George Bush promised that "help is on the way."

Tonight, America can take comfort that help is here.

Today, unlike when my dad practiced, the most powerful tools in American medicine are prescription drugs.

These medicines help so many get out of bed, pick up their grandchild, walk to the store, and find joy in each day.

Yet these miracle medicines were denied by Medicare.

Well, George Bush has righted that wrong!

Thanks to his leadership, over 40 million seniors and individuals with disabilities will soon have access to prescription drugs.

What's more, prescription drug coverage is the centerpiece of something bigger: the first real reform of Medicare since its creation.

Among the improvements we made are new screenings for heart disease, diabetes and cancer -- a first ever "Welcome to Medicare" physical exam.

And right now, thanks to the President's action, this Medicare prescription drug discount card is providing 4 million seniors with immediate relief from the high cost of their medicines.

Now some of our opponents don't want seniors to get this card.

They don't want seniors to know that our Party cut the cost of their medicines.

They'd rather play politics than help patients.

Don't listen to them! You can get your card today. And it's simple. Just call 1-800-MEDICARE. Tell 'em you want your card. Tell 'em Dr. Frist prescribed it.

And let me point out that our opponents talked about doing this for eight years.

While seniors suffered they talked and talked and talked.

George Bush and the Republican Congress delivered. We acted.

Not just talk action.

This victory for our Party -- and above all for seniors -- is part of a larger battle we're fighting on behalf of every American.

How we do so is crucial.

Our opponents have a way of confusing compassion with dependency.

We believe true compassion encourages and empowers Americans to be responsible and take control of their own lives.

That's what President Bush and the Republican Congress did when we made Health Savings Accounts HSAs -- the law of the land.

With an HSA you can invest tax-free in a personal savings account.

You can roll it over year to year or withdraw funds if you get sick without paying a penny of tax.

YOU own it. YOU invest it.

YOU grow it. YOU control it.

It is YOURS.

So here's the choice: do we grow the bureaucracy and gouge you with higher taxes, as Mr. Kerry will do?

Or, do we let the American people grow their own HSAs and own their health care, as George Bush wants to do?

We've made our choice.

But I'll tell you what Senator Kerry's prescription will be: take a handful of tax increases and don't call me in the morning.

President Bush wouldn't stop with HSAs. Health insurance costs too much. People need help.

President Bush is working for tax credits of up to $1,000 for individuals, and $3,000 for families, to help the uninsured purchase their own health insurance.

And as for small businesses, they're burdened, often crushed, by health care costs.

So, we want to help them band together to provide affordable health care for their employees and their families.

Another reason health care costs too much is our abused medical liability system.

The culprits are personal injury trial lawyers.

We oppose these predators.

We must stop them from twisting American medicine into a litigation lottery where they hit the jackpot and every patient ends up paying.

Let me share with you a story.

Two years ago, on a family vacation in Florida, I came across a horrendous car accident as my sons and I drove along Alligator Alley.

The accident had just happened.

I rushed forward as any doctor would do -- to help four people thrown from their car and two people trapped inside. Tragically, three children died.

But their parents who were critically injured and another relative -- did survive.

The next morning, I went to the hospital to check on the family.The two trauma surgeons who had cared for them pulled me aside. They said, "Dr. Frist, we may have to leave this hospital, maybe the state, maybe even what we love to do. We just can't afford our liability insurance. And it keeps going up."

Today I checked in with the hospital's Chief of Staff Dr. Callari. He said the situation has worsened. Though he has never been sued, his liability insurance has doubled.

He couldn't afford it and had to drop it.

Dr. Callari's father and grandfather were both physicians.

But he doesn't want his 11 and 12 year old boys to go into medicine. Because everything he has worked for -- his savings, his family, his livelihood -- is now at risk.

And so are the people of southern Florida. That hospital has the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the region. What if it closes?

This is unacceptable.

Because in medicine, seconds often mean the difference between life and death.

Let's be clear: you can no longer be both pro-patient and pro-trial lawyer.

John Kerry has made his choice.

He put a trial lawyer on his ticket.

By his votes and by his actions, he is the "Dr. No" of tort reform in America.

President Bush is fighting this good fight.

And in the Senate, where reform has been blocked, we will fight too. We will come back again and again and again until doctors, patients, and the American people win.

Before I close, I'd like to touch briefly on stem cell research.

Scientists work on two basic types of stem cell research.

One is adult -- with cells taken, for example, from bone marrow or cartilage. Another uses cells taken from human embryos.

Adult stem cell research has already led to cures. And both fields hold promise.

But, contrary to the claims of some, embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage.

John Kerry claims that the President has put a "sweeping ban" on stem cell research.

I challenge Mr. Kerry tonight: what ban? Shame on you, Mr. Kerry.

Under the President's policy, the federal government is funding both types of stem cell research at record levels. And the private sector remains free to fund and pursue any type of stem cell research.

The President has also said that we should conduct this research with the highest moral and ethical standards.

An embryo is biologically human. It deserves moral respect.

This President will not use your taxpayer dollars to destroy human life or create human embryos solely for the purpose of experimentation.

My friends, I'm so proud of our President's record. He's making health care more affordable, more accessible.

He's uniting ownership and opportunity for millions. And he is looking to the future.

He has a vision to harness America's awesome potential: through the power of our technologies, the strength of our sciences, the efficiency of our enterprises, and the highest aspirations of our people.

Prescription drugs in Medicare, tax-free Health Savings Accounts, an ethical framework for scientific discovery: these will be part of our future.

Tax credits for the uninsured, electronic medical records, a just, fair and fast medical liability system: these could be part of our future. But, only one candidate will lead us there President George W. Bush.

We have a choice. John Kerry's trillion dollar government-run plan will place your health in the hands of others faraway.

President Bush's plan is patient-centered which is the only, sure prescription for superior care.

Mr. Kerry will empower those who tax you. President Bush will empower those who cure you.

John Kerry remains the personal injury lawyers' best friend. George Bush will put the interests of patients, doctors and nurses first.

Fellow citizens, on November 2nd, there is only one choice for a stronger, healthier and freer America -- George W. Bush.


Source: PR Newswire "Remarks by Stephen McDonald as Prepared for Delivery at the 2004 Republican National Convention on Tuesday, August 31, 2004" http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/story/08-31-2004/0002241850

I am like so many of you.

Every day I live to serve and every day I serve to live. In a lifetime of transforming events both hopeful and fateful: one thing is constant -- my need to serve. Serving as a United States Navy Corpsman.

Serving this great city as a New York City police officer. Then, and especially now, I have followed St. Paul's guidance that all of us really walk by faith.

Today, because of President Bush's leadership and values, we are now recognizing and promoting the good works of America's faith-based and community organizations which help the youngest and oldest, the poorest and weakest among us.

The federal government is no longer discriminating against charitable groups with a religious mission -- it is welcoming them as partners. I am proud to be an American led by a President who makes sure that the promise of
America is not the privilege of a few, but the birthright of all.

As a Democrat who is putting principle over politics, I say we need President Bush to secure our future.

Thank you.


Source: PR Newswire "Remarks by George P. Bush as Prepared for Delivery at the 2004 Republican National Convention on Tuesday, August 31, 2004" http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/story/08-31-2004/0002241853

No matter how often I visit New York, I never tire of looking at the Statue of Liberty.

I can't help but reflect upon the impression she must have made on our weary but hopeful ancestors whose first glimpse of America was that inspiring silhouette.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

Although many immigrants could not read the words, the outstretched arm that pierced the heavens was clear affirmation that they had found what they were seeking -- the land of freedom and opportunity.

In return, these immigrants, and those who followed them, made this country stronger through their labor; safer through their sacrifice in defending its shores; and richer through diversity.

Our Party has always represented the interests of all people seeking opportunity.

We are the home of entrepreneurs.

Men and women who want to know the pride of accomplishment. The honor of self-sufficiency.

We meet in New York to reaffirm our commitment to these individuals - whether new to our country or born in the heartland.

That commitment begins with our children.

President Bush introduced and signed into law the No Child Left Behind initiative to raise standards, strengthen accountability, and improve student achievement in every school in America.

It's based on a simple but revolutionary idea: Every child can learn.

And every child deserves our best effort to help them succeed. President Bush has provided the largest education funding increase in history. And, we are already seeing impressive results.

For the first time since Florida started testing students, we are above the national average in reading, at the national average in math, and among the top ten states in writing!

Another way President Bush has fostered the American Dream is through tax relief. Letting people keep more of their own money helps them pay the mortgage. Save for college. Start a business.

When small business owners keep more of their earnings, they are more likely to expand and add jobs. This, in turn, allows others to earn a paycheck and support a family.

Thanks to President Bush's leadership, more people than ever own their home. And, more than half of minorities are now home owners -- the highest level in history.

The President's American Dream Downpayment Act is helping people overcome one of the biggest hurdles to being a homeowner -- finding the money for a downpayment.

Since the President announced his plan in 2002, more than 1.6 million minorities have become homeowners.

Men and women who work hard for decades should not be forced to relinquish the American Dream in retirement.

For those now in or near retirement, President Bush will always uphold the promise of Social Security. But President Bush understands that Social Security needs to be fixed to help make it more secure for our younger workers.

He believes that younger workers should have the opportunity to take some of their Social Security payments and put them into personal accounts that they own and control.

People should be able to build a nest egg that they can draw from during their golden years and pass on to their children and grandchildren.

Guided by Liberty's lamp, our Party and our President will continue to preserve the American Dream for every individual who seeks it.

"I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

"Yo levanto mi lampara al lado de la puerta dorada."

Juntos, debemos abrir la puerta de oportunidad por la reelecion del
Presidente George W. Bush!


Source: PRNewswire "Remarks by Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele on Civil Rights Anniversary as Prepared for Delivery at the 2004 Republican National Convention on Tuesday, August 31, 2004" http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/story/08-31-2004/0002241854

Good evening. Is this a great party or what?

I had planned to give a moving defense of the conservative principles of the Republican Party tonight.

But there was only one problem; Barak Obama gave it last month at the Democratic Convention.

I am the first African-American ever elected to a statewide office in Maryland.

Even more amazingly, on a ticket with Governor Bob Ehrlich, the first Republican Governor in Maryland in 40 years, I became the first Republican lieutenant governor in my state.

Together, we made history.

I am proof that the blessings of liberty are within reach of every American.

We have come an incredibly long way since the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

We have come a long way since another Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower, sent the National Guard into Little Rock to open the school doors to black and white children alike.

And we have come even further since a majority of Republicans in the United States Senate fought off the segregationist Democrats to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

My journey to this moment has been inspired by men and women who remained forever vigilant in their pursuit of equality and opportunity.

Individuals like Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and Maebell Turner, refused to accept the poisonous path of complacency.

They each had dreams, but more important, they all had plans for turning those dreams into an American reality. The promise of America is the promise of endless possibilities.

America remains that place President Reagan called "a shining city on a hill."

But while the promise of America is real, the challenges we face to secure that promise for every American are no less real.

We must continue to be vigilant in our fight against the blight of poverty, poor education and lost opportunity.

What truly defines the civil rights challenge today isn't whether you can get a seat at the lunch counter.

It's whether you can own that lunch counter in order to create legacy wealth for your children. We heard one word over and over again at the Democratic Convention: Hope.

But there is a problem, my friends: Hope is not a strategy. Hope doesn't protect you from terrorists, hope doesn't lower your taxes, hope doesn't help you buy a home, and hope doesn't ensure quality education for your kids.

As the book of James reminds us "it is not enough just to have faith. Faith that does not show itself by good deeds is no faith at all." You see, it's results that matter; and President Bush does not just talk about hope, he stands on a record of putting hope into action for America.

President Bush knows that a competitive marketplace will require providing our children with a first-rate education.

He knows that too many of our children are headed for the state pen instead of Penn State. He knows that the "soft bigotry of low expectations" is today's version of blocking the entrance to the schoolhouse door. President Bush didn't just hope for dramatic education reform, he turned that hope into No Child Left Behind, and our children are learning again. He didn't just hope for economic recovery, he turned that hope into action by returning money to the people who earned it -- American families.

Today, over 111 million taxpayers are keeping more of their own money. And the President is committed to making that tax relief permanent.

President Bush didn't just hope for increased home ownership in America, he put his hope into action.

Today, more Americans own homes than ever before and for the first time ever, more than half of all minority families are homeowners. This is a powerful and transforming time in our nation's history. I am, like many of you, a 20th century parent trying to raise 21st century kids.

I realize that my responsibility for them doesn't end when I bundle them up, kiss their foreheads and send them off into the world.

If we expect to succeed, if we expect our children to succeed, we must look to ourselves and not to government to raise our kids, start our business, or provide care to our aging parent.

What government can do is give us the tools we need and then get out of the way and let us put our hopes into action!

Yet, this requires strong leadership. Senator Kerry's leadership is illustrated best by the Senator himself when he said, "I actually voted for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it."

He also recently said that he doesn't want to use the word "war" to describe our efforts to fight terrorism.

Well, I don't want to use the words "Commander-in-Chief" to describe John Kerry.

Just a year after the first attack on the World Trade Center, most Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats rejected an amendment to slash our intelligence budget by $6 billion. But not John Kerry.

It was his amendment. Most Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats voted to give our combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan the funding necessary for things like body armor. But not John Kerry.

When Vice President Gore urged the Senate to "Reinvent Government" and reduce the federal workforce, most Republicans and Democrats voted for it. But not John Kerry.

Republicans and Democrats in the Senate voted to reform the product liability system that was making trial lawyers rich while causing playgrounds and small businesses to close. But not John Kerry.

Most Senators in both parties voted to protect the institution of marriage with the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by President Clinton. But not John Kerry.

Enough about him.

Now you may remember I mentioned Maebell Turner as one of the great inspirations in my life. Maebell is just one of many faces in America who struggled to raise a family and believed that she could offer something more for her children.

She grew up the daughter of sharecroppers and had to quit school in the fifth grade to work a farm. She married a man who died from alcoholism.

She worked forty-five years in a Laundromat, making minimum wage and still managed to send her kids to parochial school.

She never took public assistance, because as she put it, she didn't want the government raising her kids.

Maebell always saw the hope that her kids would be better off than she was, and she channeled her hope for that legacy into action.

Today, Maebell Turner has a daughter who is an accomplished pediatrician ... and a son who is Lieutenant Governor of Maryland.

A lifelong Democrat, she once asked me how I could become such a strong Republican; I simply replied "Mom, you raised me well."

You see, she raised me to understand and appreciate the words of Abraham Lincoln, who said: "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and incentive. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they should do for themselves."

These are the beliefs of our Republican Party. These are the principles that drew me to this Party 28 years ago.

And today, the standard-bearer of these convictions is George W. Bush.

So, let's continue to work to re-elect a compassionate man who understands people's yearning for freedom, a man who knows that families make better decisions than government, a man who turns hope into action, and moves us all toward that Shining City on a Hill: PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH!