TABLE OF CONTENTS
RONALD REAGAN
believed that people were basically good, and had the right
to be free.
He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst things
a person could be guilty of.
He believed in the Golden Rule and in the power of
prayer.
He believed that America was not just a place in the world,
but the hope of the world.
As Ronald Wilson Reagan goes his way, we are left with a
joyful hope he shared.
May God bless Ronald Reagan and the country he loved.
President George W. Bush, Funeral Service for Former
President Ronald Wilson Reagan
Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
June 11, 2004
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INTRODUCTION AND PREAMBLE
One hundred and fifty years ago, Americans who had
gathered to protest the expansion of slavery gave birth to a
political Party that would save the Union &endash; the
Republican Party. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois
carried the Republican banner in the Presidential election
and was elected the Party's first President. He became our
nation's greatest leader … and one of our Party's
greatest heroes. Every day, we strive to fulfill Lincoln's
vision: a country united and free, in which all people are
guaranteed equal rights and the opportunity to pursue their
dreams. His legacy goes beyond the borders of America. It
can be seen in free governments all over the world.
Lincoln's successors have been united by a common purpose
&endash; defending freedom at home and promoting it abroad.
Today, the Republican Party gathers to renominate a man who
carries on the best traditions of our Party by carrying the
banner of freedom.
***
When America was struck by terrorists on September 11,
2001, President Bush immediately realized that it was an act
of war, not just a crime. Working with Congress, the
President drew up plans to take the fight to the enemy,
vowing to bring the terrorists to justice, or bring justice
to the terrorists. And together, the President and Congress
took steps to help the wounded, honor the dead, and secure
our homeland.
Thanks to President Bush's leadership, the skill of the
American military, and the commitment of our allies, today
there are more than 50 million newly free people in the
nations of Afghanistan and Iraq &endash; and America is
safer.
The President's leadership has also been bold and
visionary at home. When the President came to office, our
economy was faltering, seniors were having trouble paying
for their prescription drugs, and schools were stuck in a
pattern of low expectations and poor results.
President Bush worked with Congress to lower taxes, so
Americans can keep more of their own hard-earned money to
spend, save, or invest, thereby growing our economy and
putting people back to work. He worked with Congress to
strengthen Medicare by adding a prescription drug benefit
and giving seniors more choices to meet their individual
health care needs.
And the President worked with Congress to pass historic
education reforms to ensure that every child can read.
Today, higher standards and stronger accountability are
getting results in classrooms across Americ
***
We are proud of the record we offer to the American
people. We have helped America overcome extraordinary
challenges. We are re-shaping our government to meet the
demands of the modern world and better serve our
citizens.
We are also proud of our agenda for America's future.
President George W. Bush will lead this nation with courage,
hope, and resolve over the next four years. Republicans have
always been the Party of fresh ideas and new thinking. We
encourage debate on the major issues of our day, and we will
consistently act in accord with the greatest values of our
country &endash; freedom and opportunity for all.
Our plans focus on ensuring that America remains safe,
terrorists are defeated, and democracy flourishes in the
world … on expanding opportunities for ownership and
investment … on making tax relief permanent and
ensuring greater energy independence … on increasing
the affordability and accessibility of health care … on
promoting works of compassion and strengthening our greatest
values … on preparing students for success in life by
bringing the benefits of education reform to high schools
… and on helping workers adjust to a changing economy
by offering flexible training options that meet their
individual needs. Our Party's 2004 platform addresses the
major issues facing America in the first decade of the 21st
century:
Winning the War on Terror …
because our government's most solemn duty is to keep its
citizens safe.
Ushering in an Ownership Era …
because a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit will keep our
economy strong and provide more opportunities for workers
and families.
Building an Innovative Economy to Compete in the World
…
because America can compete with anyone, anywhere, thanks to
our entrepreneurs and risk-takers who keep us on the cutting
edge of technology and commerce.
Strengthening Our Communities …
because our children deserve to grow up in an America in
which all their hopes and dreams can come true.
Protecting Our Families …
because we respect the family's role as a touchstone of
stability and strength in an everchanging world.
This platform makes clear that the American people will have
a choice on November 2nd. A choice between strength and
uncertainty.
A choice between results and rhetoric.
A choice between optimism and pessimism.
A choice between opportunity and dependence.
A choice between freedom and fear.
And a choice between moving forward and turning back.
The 2004 Republican Party Platform makes clear:
We choose strength.
We choose results.
We choose optimism.
We choose opportunity.
We choose freedom.
And we choose moving forward with President Bush. A man of
courage and compassion, of integrity and action.
One hundred and fifty years after our founding, we
Republicans proudly carry forward our time-honored banner of
freedom. And we endorse the bold and visionary leadership of
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR
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"Our nation's cause has always been larger than our
nation's defense. We fight, as we always fight, for a just
peace &endash; a peace that favors liberty. We will defend
the peace against the threats from terrorists and tyrants.
We will preserve the peace by building good relations among
the great powers. And we will extend the peace by
encouraging free and open societies on every continent."
-- President George W. Bush
President Bush has confronted unprecedented challenges,
including a world scarred by terrorism. The President and
the American people have risen to the occasion by acting on
a bold new statement of America's place and purpose in the
world. Today, we are filled with hope for the most dramatic
advance of liberty in 60 years. President Bush's leadership
is rooted in the timeless values that have made America a
unique and exalted nation: respect for individual rights; a
deep commitment to freedom; a desire to serve as a living
example of the power of democracy. The President's
leadership has achieved successes once deemed impossible to
realize in so short a period of time. His forward-looking
strategy for freedom and peace is making progress in every
part of the world. The President and Republicans in Congress
recognize that new threats demand new tools and new methods
for defending America and promoting our goals in the world.
They have responded swiftly to the challenges of a new era,
rather than remaining wedded to outdated theories and
fighting battles that ended long ago. Their accomplishments
are the foundation upon which future progress will be
built.
A Comprehensive Strategy to Win the War on
Terror, Promote Peace, and Build a Better World
The world changed on September 11, 2001, and since that
day, under the strong, steady, and visionary leadership of
President George W. Bush, Americans have helped make the
world not only safer, but better. The President continues to
lead a steady, confident, systematic campaign to defend
America against the dangers of our time. We are going after
terrorists wherever they plot and plan and hide, changing
the old course of pinprick strikes that did little to get at
the root of terrorism. We eliminated many of al Qaeda's key
leaders and put the world on notice that nations that train,
harbor, or finance terrorists are just as guilty as the
terrorists themselves.
We will not allow the world's most dangerous regimes to
possess the world's most dangerous weapons. Our message is
getting through, as indicated by Libya's leader, who decided
to turn over his weapons of mass destruction and cooperate
with the international community. Today, because America has
acted, and because America has led, the forces of terror and
tyranny have suffered defeat after defeat, and America and
the world are safer.
On September 11, 2001, we saw the cruelty of the terrorists,
and we glimpsed the future they intend for us. They intend
to strike the United States to the limits of their power.
They seek weapons of mass destruction to kill Americans on
an even greater scale. This danger is increased when outlaw
regimes build or acquire weapons of mass destruction and
maintain ties to terrorist groups.
On September 11, 2001, we saw the spirit of courage and
optimism of the American people &endash; that greatest
assurance of the ultimate triumph of our cause. Courage and
optimism led colleagues to help each other in escaping from
collapsing buildings. Courage and optimism led policemen,
firefighters, emergency medical professionals, public works
employees, our men and women in uniform, and selfless
volunteers to run into burning buildings to save others and
undertake a mammoth rescue and recovery effort. Courage and
optimism led the passengers on Flight 93 to rush their
murderers to save lives on the ground. Courage and optimism
led America's parents and teachers to battle their own fears
to keep children calm and safe. In those and countless other
acts of heroism on that day, and many times since,
terrorists have learned that Americans will not be
intimidated. We will fight them with everything we have
&endash; and we will prevail.
President Bush answered the challenge of September 11, 2001,
not only with steadfast resolve, but also with vision,
optimism, and unshakable confidence in the will and faith of
the American people. That is what we all saw on September
14, 2001, when our President stood with the brave workers at
Ground Zero and resolutely assured our nation amidst our
shock, anger, and grief that while the terrorists had struck
first, America would have the last word.
The President's most solemn duty is to protect our country.
George W. Bush has kept that charge.
To protect our people, President Bush is leading America,
staying on the offensive against threats within our own
country. He worked with Congress to establish the Department
of Homeland Security in the most significant reorganization
of the federal government since 1947. The PATRIOT Act is
being used to track terrorist activity and to break up
terror cells. Now, the FBI can use tools that have been long
available to fight organized crime and drug trafficking, but
could not be used in the past to fight terrorism.
Intelligence and law enforcement officials are sharing
information as never before. The President transformed the
mission of the FBI to focus first and foremost on preventing
terrorism. Every element of America's homeland security plan
is critical, because the terrorists are ruthless and
resourceful &endash; and we know they are preparing to
attack us again. It is not possible to guarantee perfect
security in our vast, free nation. But the President and
Vice President, along with many fine professionals in
intelligence, homeland security, law enforcement, and the
military are working tirelessly to protect the country. We
are grateful to them all.
President Bush recognized that to overcome the dangers of
our time, America would have to take a new approach in the
world. That approach is marked by a determination to
challenge new threats, not ignore them, or simply wait for
future tragedy &endash; and by a renewed commitment to
building a hopeful future in hopeless places, instead of
allowing troubled regions to remain in despair and explode
in violence.
Before entering office, President Bush recognized that our
age is a time of opportunity for America &endash;
opportunity to translate this moment of influence into
decades of peace, prosperity, and liberty. That conviction
is in the finest traditions of the Republican Party. As our
platform said in 1984, during the height of Cold War
confrontation: "The supreme purpose of our foreign policy
must be to maintain our freedom in a peaceful international
environment in which the United States and our allies and
friends are secure against military threats, and democratic
governments are flourishing in a world of increasing
prosperity."
The reality of 9/11 does not diminish our generation's
opportunity to advance the cause of freedom but in fact
makes it all the more important that we take up that
challenge.
President Bush has rallied America to its calling &endash;
to make the world safer and better. This calling is answered
by a distinctly American internationalism that reflects the
union of our values and our national interests. Americans
everywhere are remaining faithful to that duty. By keeping
our word and holding firm to our values, this generation is
showing the world the power of liberty once again.
Republicans support President Bush's steadfast commitment to
the goal of a lasting, democratic peace, in which all
nations are free from the threat of sudden terror. We affirm
the three commitments of the President's strategy for
peace:
- Terrorists long ago declared war on America, and now
America has declared war against terrorists. We are
defending the peace by taking the fight to the enemy. We
are confronting terrorists overseas so we do not have to
confront them here at home. We are destroying the
leadership of terrorist networks in sudden raids,
disrupting their planning and financing, and keeping them
on the run. Month by month, we are shrinking the space in
which they can freely operate, by denying them territory
and the support of governments.
- Nations that support terrorism are just as dangerous,
and just as guilty, as the perpetrators of terrorism.
Every nation must make a choice to support terror or to
support America and our coalition to defeat terror. We
are preserving the peace by working with more than 80
allied nations, as well as international institutions, to
isolate and confront terrorists and outlaw regimes.
America is leading a broad coalition of nations to
disrupt proliferation. We are working with the United
Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and
other international organizations to take action in our
common security. The global threat of terrorism requires
a global response. To be effective, that global response
requires leadership &endash; and America is leading.
- There is no negotiation with terrorists. No form of
therapy or coercion will turn them from their murderous
ways. Only total and complete destruction of terrorism
will allow freedom to flourish. We will extend the peace
by supporting the rise of democracy, and the hope and
progress that democracy brings, as the alternative to
hatred and terror in the broader Middle East. In
democratic societies, men and women do not swear
allegiance to malcontents and murderers; they turn their
hearts and labor to building better lives. Democratic
governments do not shelter terrorist camps or attack
their neighbors. When justice and democracy advance, so
does the hope of lasting peace. We are proud of the
President's steady leadership in executing this strategy.
We are dealing with terrorist threats as they gather,
rather than waiting for them to become imminent dangers.
The results are clear to see.
- Three years ago, our nation was not on a war footing
against al Qaeda &endash; even though Osama bin Laden
declared war on the United States in 1996 and again in
1998. The al Qaeda leadership believed itself to be
impervious to any American response, continued to raise
funds practically without restriction, and operated in a
world in which there was no cohesive global approach to
fighting terror. Today, al Qaeda has been wounded, having
lost many of its known leaders and most of its important
sanctuaries. America and its allies and friends have
broken al Qaeda cells here in the United States and
overseas. A global coalition, led by the United States,
has dried up sources of terrorist financing. Thousands of
very skilled and determined military personnel remain on
the manhunt, going after the remaining killers who hide
in cities and caves. Today, because of the solidarity of
the international coalition in the War on Terror, we are
bringing these terrorists to justice, and the American
people are safer.
- Three years ago, al Qaeda's secure home base was in
Afghanistan, a country ruled by the Taliban, one of the
most backward and brutal regimes of modern history.
Schooling was denied to girls. Women were whipped and
executed in public. Millions lived in fear. With
protection from the Taliban, al Qaeda and its associates
trained, indoctrinated, and sent forth thousands of
killers to set up terror cells in dozens of countries,
including our own. Today, Afghanistan is a world away
from the nightmare of the Taliban. Twentyeight million
people are free. That country has a good and just
president. Boys and girls are being educated. Women are
respected. Many refugees have returned home to rebuild
their country, and a presidential election is scheduled
for this fall. The terror camps are closed and the Afghan
government is helping us to hunt the Taliban and
terrorists inremote regions. Today, because we acted to
liberate Afghanistan, a threat has been removed, and the
American people are safer.
- Three years ago, Pakistan was one of the few
countries in the world that recognized the Taliban
regime. Al Qaeda was active and recruiting in Pakistan.
Pakistan served as a transit point for al Qaeda
terrorists leaving Afghanistan on missions of murder. The
United States could not count on the support of
Pakistan's military and civilian leaders &endash; the
very people we would need to help shut down al Qaeda
operations in that part of the world. Today, the
governments of the United States and Pakistan are working
closely in the fight against terror. Pakistan has helped
capture Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the operational planner
behind the September 11 attacks, and other terrorists.
Pakistani forces are rounding up terrorists along their
nation's western border. Today, because we are working
with Pakistani leaders, Pakistan is an ally in the War on
Terror, and the American people are safer.
- Three years ago, terrorists were well-established in
Saudi Arabia. Inside that country, fundraisers and other
facilitators gave al Qaeda financial and logistical help
with little scrutiny or opposition. Today, after the
attacks in Riyadh and elsewhere, the Saudi government
knows that al Qaeda is its enemy. Saudi Arabia is working
hard to shut down the facilitators and financial
supporters of terrorism. The government has captured or
killed many first-tier leaders of the al Qaeda
organization in Saudi Arabia. Today, because Saudi Arabia
has seen the danger and has joined the War on Terror, the
American people are safer.
- Three years ago, the ruler of Iraq was a sworn enemy
of America who provided safe haven for terrorists, used
weapons of mass destruction, and turned his nation into a
prison. Saddam Hussein was not just a dictator; he was a
proven mass murderer who refused to account for weapons
of mass murder. He defied the international community and
seventeen United Nations resolutions over the course of
twelve years, giving no indication that Iraq would ever
disarm and comply with the just demands of the world. In
2002 &endash; in Resolution 1441 &endash; the United
Nations Security Council unanimously voted that Saddam
Hussein had one final chance to comply with his
obligations to the international community, or there
would be serious consequences. As he had for over a
decade, he refused to comply. Every responsible nation
recognized this threat, and knew it could not go on
forever.
Today, the dictator who caused decades of death and
turmoil, who twice invaded his neighbors, who harbored
terrorist leaders, who used chemical weapons on innocent
men, women, and children, finally stands before the bar of
justice. Iraq, which once had the worst government in the
Middle East, is now becoming an example of reform to the
region. Iraqi security forces are fighting beside coalition
troops to defeat the terrorists and foreign fighters who
threaten their nation and the world.
Today, because America and our coalition helped to end the
violent regime of Saddam Hussein, and because we are helping
to raise a peaceful democracy in its place, 25 million
Iraqis are free and the American people are safer.
- Three years ago, the nation of Libya, a longtime
supporter of terror, was spending millions to acquire
chemical and nuclear weapons.
Today, thousands of Libya's chemical munitions have been
destroyed. Libya's nuclear equipment that could ultimately
have threatened the lives of hundreds of thousands is stored
away in the United States. Today, because the Libyan
government saw the seriousness of the civilized world, and
correctly judged its own interests, the American people are
safer.
- Three years ago, a private weapons proliferation
network was doing business around the world. This
network, operated by the Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q.
Khan, was selling nuclear plans and equipment to the
highest bidder, and found willing buyers in places like
Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
Today, the A.Q. Khan network is out of business. We have
ended one of the most dangerous sources of proliferation in
the world, and the American people are safer.
Republicans applaud President Bush, Vice President Cheney,
and those who have supported them in the Congress for the
steady leadership that led to these successes. America must
stay the course.
Consolidating Gains in the War on Terror
In Afghanistan and Iraq, our enemies have seen the results
of what civilized nations can, and will, do against regimes
that harbor, support, and use terrorism to achieve their
political goals. Republicans believe that America and the
world must keep our commitments to the people of those
countries, who are building the world's newest democracies
and counting on the world to help. Delivering these nations
from tyranny has required sacrifice and loss. We must honor
that sacrifice by finishing the great work we have
begun.
Republicans appreciate the military, financial, and
technical assistance provided by the dozens of nations
contributing to the reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The success of free and stable governments in Afghanistan,
Iraq, and elsewhere will further shrink the space in which
terrorists can operate. As the entire region sees the
promise of freedom in its midst, the terrorist ideology will
become more and more irrelevant, until that day when it is
viewed with contempt or ignored altogether.
The forces of many nations are working with Afghans to find
and defeat Taliban remnants and eliminate al Qaeda
terrorists. We applaud the work of American forces and
coalition partners in helping to build the new Afghan
national army and to train new Afghan police and border
patrol. Together, Afghan and international forces will
maintain the peace, secure Afghanistan's borders, and deny
terrorists any foothold in that country. We applaud
President Bush's announcement of U.S. support for five new
initiatives that will help the Afghan people achieve the
peace, stability, and prosperity they deserve &endash;
through support for the development of democracy,
educational assistance, cultural exchanges, enhanced
bilateral economic ties, and increased economic opportunity
for women.
The road ahead for Afghanistan is still long and difficult.
Yet the Afghan people can know that their country will never
be abandoned to terrorists and killers. The world and the
United States look forward to elections this year in
Afghanistan and stand with the Afghan people as partners in
their quest for peace and prosperity, stability, and
democracy.
As Republicans, we do not equivocate, as others have done,
about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq. The
best intelligence available at the time indicated that
Saddam Hussein was a threat. On that point, President Bush,
members of both parties in Congress, and the United Nations
agreed. While the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction
we expected to find in Iraq have not yet materialized, we
have confirmed that Saddam Hussein had the capability to
reconstitute his weapons programs and the desire to do so.
Our nation did the right thing, and the American people are
now safer because we and our allies ended the brutal
dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, halting his decades-long
pursuit of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.
President Bush had a choice to make: Trust a madman or
defend America. He chose defending America.
Supported by brave coalition allies such as the United
Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Poland, and Denmark, and
displaying courage, skill, and resourcefulness on the
battlefield, the men and women of our Armed Forces removed
the dictator of Iraq, a declared enemy of America who had
the capability and intent to produce weapons of mass murder,
and could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on
killing Americans. That was a risk we could not take.
America's men and women in uniform have been unrelenting in
the performance of their duty. Our nation has asked much of
our military, and there is still much hard work ahead. We
are proud of the sacrifice made by all who have served and
are serving, and we are immensely grateful for the
sacrifices made by their families and loved ones. Further,
we honor the memories of those who have died in combat
serving the cause of freedom. Defending our homeland with
their ultimate sacrifice on behalf of all Americans merits
our prayers and our thanksgiving. We also commit to
continued honor and care for our wounded veterans, and
support for all who return home from service. Together, we
look forward to that day when the War on Terror is won and
our military can return home, no longer at risk, our world
and our country safer.
We also salute our coalition allies. Their efforts with us
to shape a world where freedom is honored and liberty is
cherished deserves respect and admiration; their sacrifice,
too, does not go without notice and appreciation.
We are ever mindful that American troops remain on the
ground in Iraq, working steadfastly to help the Iraqi people
achieve stability and democracy. We therefore welcome
declarations from responsible political leaders of both
parties that our nation will persevere in our mission there,
not cut and run. The American people need to hear this
message. People in Baghdad and beyond need to hear it. The
enemy needs to hear it. Most importantly, American soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and Marines risking their lives in Iraq
need to hear it.
We condemn inconsistent, ambiguous, and politically
expedient statements on that point. To the extent such
wavering encourages our adversaries to fight harder, our men
and women in uniform suffer the consequences. Their mission
is difficult enough. Uncertainty about America's commitment
to that mission makes it immeasurably more difficult.
In Iraq, America is serving the cause of liberty, peace, and
our own security. America accepted a difficult task in Iraq.
We know that for all these reasons, we will finish that
task.
We also know that Iraqi sovereignty is a tribute to the will
of the Iraqi people and the courage of Iraqi leaders. It is
a proud moral achievement for members of our coalition. We
have full confidence in the plan for Iraqi self-government
that is currently being implemented by Iraq's interim
government. That government has gained broad international
support, and has been endorsed by the United Nations
Security Council. The United States and our coalition
partners are helping prepare Iraqis for the defense of their
own country, including through the work of the NATO mission
to train Iraqi security forces. We are helping Iraqis
rebuild their country's infrastructure, and Iraq is
continuing to move toward free elections, with important
assistance from the United Nations.
We applaud President Bush for establishing a visionary and
resolute policy &endash; a Forward Strategy of Freedom in
the Middle East &endash; to stand with the people of that
region as they seek their future in freedom. Republicans
support President Bush's policy of working with every
government in the Middle East dedicated to destroying the
terrorist networks, while in the longer term expecting a
higher standard of reform and democracy from our friends in
the region. We believe that democracy and reform will make
those nations stronger and more stable, and make the world
more secure by undermining terrorism at its source.
As a result of President Bush's leadership, G-8 members
adopted the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative
at this year's Sea Island Summit. We applaud the commitment
of the world's leading industrial nations to this historic
initiative to support political, economic, and social reform
throughout the region.
Halting the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass
Destruction
Republicans agree with the Bush Administration that there is
no greater danger to our people than the nexus of terrorists
and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). That judgment is
shared by leading allies and friends. As President Bush and
his fellow G-8 leaders declared in 2003, the spread of
weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism
constitute "the pre-eminent threat to international
security." The risks posed by this dangerous relationship
cannot be contained or deterred by traditional means. We
applaud President Bush for pursuing from the beginning of
his Administration a comprehensive strategy through which
the United States works with its allies to:
- ensure that international agreements against the
proliferation of WMD are observed and enforced;
- detect, disrupt, and block the spread of dangerous
weapons and technology;
- confront emerging threats from any person or state
before those threats have fully materialized; and
- improve our capabilities to respond to the use of WMD
and minimize the consequences of an attack. Over the last
two years, under President Bush's leadership and working
with likeminded nations, America has:
- ended Saddam Hussein's decades-long pursuit of
chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons;
- achieved the elimination of Libya's WMD and ballistic
missile programs;
- shut down the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation
network;
- led the Proliferation Security Initiative to
interdict dangerous WMD and their means of delivery;
- strengthened efforts to secure weapons-usable
materials and sensitive technologies in the former Soviet
Union and elsewhere;
- insisted on confronting the threat from North Korea
through Six-Party Talks involving the Republic of Korea,
Japan, China, and Russia;
- supported the work of the International Atomic Energy
Agency to hold the Iranian regime to its treaty
obligations;
- strengthened international non-proliferation export
control and treaty regimes;
- secured unanimous passage of United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1540, which requires states to enact
legislation that criminalizes proliferation activities;
and
- achieved agreement among the G-8 nations to refrain
for one year from initiating new transfers of uranium
enrichment and reprocessing technology to additional
states. Republicans applaud these achievements, as well
as the successes of President Bush and Vice President
Cheney, backed by the Republican Congress, here at home
to make America safer from the threat of weapons of mass
destruction &endash; including:
- creating Biodefense for the 21st Century, a national
strategy for meeting the full range of biological
threats;
- signing into law Project BioShield, which provides
new tools to improve medical countermeasures protecting
Americans against a chemical, biological, radiological,
or nuclear attack;
- putting in place major new biodefense
capabilities;
- creating the Container Security Initiative to screen
cargo destined for the United States; and
- deploying missile defenses to defend the United
States and its friends and allies.
Libya's decision to disclose and dismantle its WMD
programs is a product of the President's strategy that gives
regimes a choice. They can choose to pursue WMD at great
peril and cost, including international isolation. Or they
can choose to renounce these weapons, take steps to rejoin
the international community, and have its help in creating a
better future for their citizens.
The Libya case also demonstrates the President's success in
forging increased international cooperation to prevent the
spread of WMD technology through his groundbreaking
Proliferation Security Initiative, a broad international
partnership to coordinate actions to interdict proliferation
shipments of WMD and related materials and shut down
proliferation networks and entities. Republicans applaud the
support of more than 60 nations in this crucial multilateral
effort to stop the trade in weapons of mass destruction and
their related components.
We commend the President's leadership in expanding greatly
the resources to prevent proliferation, including
record-level U.S. and multilateral resources devoted to the
Nunn-Lugar programs and other nonproliferation assistance,
including that made available through the creation of the
G-8 Global Partnership, which will provide $20 billion to
this effort over 10 years. We hail the commitment of the
other G-8 nations (the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, Canada,
Germany, France, and Russia) to this vital initiative, as
well as commitments by other countries, including Poland,
Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Australia.
Republicans share President Bush's understanding that in an
age in which the enemies of civilization openly and actively
seek the world's most destructive technologies, the United
States cannot remain idle while dangers gather. We therefore
believe that to forestall or prevent hostile acts by our
adversaries, the United States must, if necessary, act
preemptively.
Strengthening Alliances to Win the War on Terror, Promote
Peace, and Build a Better World
Republicans recognize that our progress in the War on Terror
has been achieved with the help of other responsible
nations. We hail the strong and broad-based cooperation of
America's allies in the War on Terror. We are grateful to
the more than 30 nations with forces serving in Iraq, and
the nearly 40 nations with forces serving in Afghanistan. In
the fight against terror, America has asked our allies to do
hard things. They have taken up these responsibilities in a
spirit of solidarity that America should never forget.
We applaud President Bush for his success in mobilizing such
international cooperation in the War on Terror, which the
9/11 Commission judges to be "on a vastly enlarged scale"
and to have expanded dramatically since September 11,
2001.
We also question the credibility of our opponents, who claim
to support global alliances while nominating a candidate who
has insulted our allies by calling the nations fighting in
Iraq "window-dressing" and referring to them as a "coalition
of the coerced and the bribed." Directing ugly rhetoric at
America's allies in a time of war is irresponsible. It does
not represent the gratitude and respect the vast majority of
Americans have for the men and women from other nations who
are risking their lives to make the world safer.
Republicans welcome the enlargement of NATO, which has
strengthened history's most successful Alliance. The
Atlantic Alliance has widened the circle of its friends,
while also creating a new chapter in our relationship with
Russia.
Under President Bush's leadership, the United States is
working with responsible governments and international
institutions to convince the leaders of North Korea and Iran
that their nuclear weapons ambitions are deeply contrary to
their own interests. With allies, America has launched the
Broader Middle East Initiative, to encourage reform and
democracy throughout the region, a project that will shape
the history of our times for the better. Our nation is
helping governments fight poverty and disease, so they do
not become failed states and future havens for terror.
Strengthening America's National Security
Institutions
The major institutions of American national security were
designed in a different era to meet different requirements.
All of them are being transformed to meet the challenge of
defending America in a new era. In this endeavor, America
will rely &endash; as always &endash; on the character and
skill of our citizens, especially the bravery, pride, and
hard work of America's men and women in the military, our
first responders, our diplomats, and our law enforcement and
intelligence agents.
Homeland Security
The freedom we enjoy also makes us vulnerable to attack.
Since September 11, 2001, President Bush, Vice President
Cheney, the Congress, and governors across the nation have
taken significant steps to:
- streamline the federal government to make it more
effective at combating terrorism;
- tighten security at entry points like ports,
airports, and borders;
- strengthen protections at critical infrastructure
landmarks such as power and water plants; and
- reduce the threats of bioterrorism and
cyberterrorism.
Through all their actions, President Bush and Congress
have been careful to protect the rights and liberties that
make America a beacon of freedom and justice. The President
and Congress have also provided unprecedented resources to
support local first responders.
The men and women of the Department of Homeland Security,
and the first responders at the state and local level with
whom they have partnered, vigilantly safeguard the security
of America each and every day. They have moved swiftly but
thoughtfully to direct enhanced resources to counter the
dangers of the new and shifting threats we face, and they
have proved themselves equal to the task. The Republican
Party salutes the work of the:
- Coast Guard in protecting our shores;
- Customs and Border Patrol who police our borders;
- Air marshals and baggage screeners of the
Transportation Security Administration in safeguarding
our airports and our skies;
- Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in ensuring that
the identity of foreign citizens who enter our borders is
known;
- Directorate of Information Analysis and
Infrastructure Protection and the Secret Service for
partnering with private industry to protect millions of
Americans by enhancing security at chemical plants and
other critical infrastructure;
- Federal Bureau of Investigation in applying enhanced
law enforcement tools provided by the PATRIOT Act to
track down terrorists and thwart their plots before they
can be executed to murderous effect;
- Centers for Disease Control and the National
Institutes of Health for their work in safeguarding the
nation from biological attacks; and
- Law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMS
personnel, and other first responders in state and local
jurisdictions throughout the country who have diligently
employed increased federal resources to train and prepare
for the prevention and mitigation of future terrorist
attacks.
These dedicated men and women, the nation's last line of
defense and first hope in response, give their utmost every
day to keep us safe. Department of Homeland Security Just as
the Cold War prompted a massive reorganization of the
federal government's foreign policy apparatus, the War on
Terror demanded a thorough reorganization of America's
domestic preparedness agencies. President Bush led this
effort with a plan to merge 22 separate government entities
into the new Department of Homeland Security, a cohesive
department with the primary mission of keeping America safe.
After the American people returned control of the Senate to
Republicans in the 2002 mid-term elections, Congress passed
legislation enacting the President's plan. Further, to
ensure that America's law enforcement, intelligence, and
first responders have the resources they need to protect
America, President Bush and Congress have nearly tripled
homeland security funding since 2001.
Waging War against Terrorists on Every Front
We endorse the efforts of President Bush and Republicans in
Congress to keep our homeland safe by taking action on
multiple fronts, all aimed at stopping terrorists before
they strike.
- The FBI has been refocused to track down terrorists
before they attack.
- The Treasury Department is now leading the effort to
find and eliminate sources of terrorist financing around
the world. Since September 11, 2001, the United States
and our allies have designated 345 terrorist-related
entities and frozen more than $139 million in terrorist
assets in more than 1,400 accounts worldwide.
- The President signed into law the PATRIOT Act, which
gives law enforcement and intelligence agents the same
tools to fight terror that have long been available to
fight organized crime and drug trafficking. The PATRIOT
Act also made it possible for law enforcement and
intelligence agents to share information and coordinate
efforts to prevent terrorism. The 9/11 Commission rightly
praised the PATRIOT Act's role in improving information
sharing.
- Since the PATRIOT Act was passed, four terrorist
cells have been broken up inside the United States and
more than 189 individuals have been convicted or pled
guilty to terrorism-related offenses.
First Responders
President Bush knows that America's firefighters, local law
enforcement, and other first responders play a critical role
in protecting the homeland. Hundreds of firefighters and
police officers gave their lives to help their fellow
citizens on September 11, 2001, and should another attack
ever come, they will be first at the scene again. They must
have the tools they need to perform their jobs as safely and
effectively as possible. To this end, the President and
Congress have massively increased spending for our nation's
first responders. They have worked with governors, mayors,
and tribal and local leaders to implement an integrated and
federally supported approach to protecting communities.
- States and localities have received more than $13
billion since 2001.
- Assistance to Firefighter Grants are up 400 percent
since 2001.
- State Domestic Preparedness funding is up more than
2,600 percent since 2001. President Bush has taken steps
to send money to the areas that are most at risk of
terrorist attack, and instituted measures to speed the
money to the first responders on the ground.
Airports
President Bush has overhauled and greatly enhanced security
at the nation's airports. Our infrastructure to protect
airplanes, passengers, crews, and cargo from terrorist acts
has never been stronger than it is today. Cockpit doors have
been hardened, more than 5,000 air marshals and 45,000
federal screeners have been hired, new screening technology
has been developed, and 100 percent of commercial air
passengers and checked bags are now screened. As tagging and
tracking citizens is inconsistent with American freedom, we
oppose the creation of a national identification card or
system.
Ports
Proposed funding for port security in 2005 represents a 600
percent increase since President Bush came to office. In
addition, the Container Security Initiative ensures
that:
- all cargo is now screened by customs agents;
- screening takes place in foreign ports, well before
potentially dangerous cargo ever reaches our shores;
and
- all high-risk cargo is physically inspected.
Border Security
Our nation has been enriched by immigrants seeking a better
life. In many cases, immigrants of the past fled violence
and oppression searching for peace and freedom. All suffered
and sacrificed but hoped for a better future for their
children in America. Our nation has been enriched by their
determination, energy, and diversity.
Ensuring the integrity of our borders is vital to ensuring
the safety of our citizens. We must know the identity of all
visitors who enter the United States, and we must know when
they leave. The US-VISIT system, which uses biometric data
to better track the entry and exit of foreign travelers, has
been implemented at more than 115 airports and is presently
being implemented at land border crossings. Reconnaissance
cameras, border patrol agents, and unmanned aerial flights
have all been increased at our borders.
We must strengthen our Border Patrol to stop illegal
crossings, and we will equip the Border Patrol with the
tools, technologies, structures, and sufficient force
necessary to secure the border. We will seek stiff penalties
for those who smuggle illegal aliens into the country and
for those who sell fraudulent documents. We urge continued
support for state, local, and federal law enforcement to
work in a cohesive manner in securing our borders to prevent
illegal entry.
Critical Infrastructure
Most critical infrastructure is not federally owned or
operated, requiring cooperation from all levels of
government and private industry for effective protection. As
part of a nationwide review of critical infrastructure
initiated by President Bush, due to be completed by December
2004, the Department of Homeland Security has already
identified the highest-risk chemical sites and partnered
with industry to enhance protections at those sites. We
endorse the President's request to have the Department of
Homeland Security establish minimum safety requirements at
chemical plants and enforce compliance when voluntary
measures are deemed inadequate.
Bioterrorism
It is no secret that the enemies of the United States are
determined to acquire and use biological and chemical
weapons. The potential exists for terrorists to use
genetically engineered bioweapons that incorporate some of
the deadliest diseases known to man, such as anthrax, ebola,
smallpox, sarin, or ricin. Such weapons are capable of
inflicting grievous harm on any nation caught unprepared.
For this reason, President George W. Bush has long made
bolstering the nation's defenses against bioterrorism a
central focus of his Administration. President Bush has
worked with the Congress to:
- increase the federal bioterrorism budget by more than
1,600 percent, from $294 million in 2001 to $5.2 billion
in 2004;
- expand bioterror research by an even greater margin,
from $53 million in 2001 to $1.7 billion in 2005, an
increase of more than 3,100 percent;
- increase the size of the Strategic National Stockpile
of vaccines and countermeasures by 50 percent since 2001;
and
- further secure more than $5.5 billion to enhance the
stockpile and to encourage the development of new
vaccines and countermeasures.
Although there is no such thing as perfect safety from
biological attacks, President Bush's historic commitment to
building up the biological defenses of the United States has
made us far less vulnerable to the threat of bioterrorism
than we were just three years ago. The President's
continuing commitment to implement further biodefense
projects holds the promise of an even more secure
future.
Coast Guard
Republicans recognize the critical new role played by the
U.S. Coast Guard in upholding America's maritime security
against terrorist threats. Our nation saw the dedication and
the versatility of the Coast Guard in the aftermath of
September 11, 2001 &endash; a performance that demonstrated
the Coast Guard's vital contribution to homeland security.
We applaud the men and women of the Coast Guard for rising
to meet new challenges, even as they continue to accomplish
traditional missions such as search and rescue, navigation
assistance, drug interdiction, fisheries enforcement, and
environmental protection. We also applaud the Coast Guard
men and women who serve and have served in the Persian Gulf
and the Mediterranean in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Under the leadership of President Bush and the Republican
Congress, our nation has significantly increased budget
support for the Coast Guard to achieve its expanded mission.
We affirm the importance of continued strong support,
including for efforts to recapitalize and enlarge the Coast
Guard's fleet, a critical component of our overall national
fleet. This should not be done at the expense of or by in
any way reducing the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding program. Our
nation asks much of the men and women of the Coast Guard
&endash; uniformed warfighters who serve on the front line
of the War on Terror. We applaud the President and the
Republican Congress for ensuring that the service has the
resources needed to accomplish its expanded mission.
Diplomacy
Republicans believe that just as our nation relies on our
men and women in uniform to fight and win the War on Terror,
we also depend on America's diplomats, who serve in the
vanguard of our present struggle. Defeating terrorism
requires the United States to:
- help establish stable and democratic governments in
nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq that once supported
terrorism;
- support front-line states and coalition partners;
- deepen counterterrorism, intelligence, and law
enforcement cooperation with allies and friends; and
- energetically promote democracy, especially in the
Broader Middle East.
In all of these areas and more, the professionals of
America's foreign affairs agencies serve at the front line
of advancing U.S. national interests and values. We salute
their strong record of achievement during this consequential
era of American foreign policy and support the efforts of
President Bush and the Republican Congress to provide the
Department of State funding sufficient to ensure the
continued success of American diplomacy.
Intelligence
Republicans believe that intelligence &endash; and how we
use it &endash; is our first line of defense against
terrorists and the threat posed by hostile states.
The dedicated, hardworking men and women of our intelligence
community are laboring every day to keep our country safe.
Republicans are proud of their work and grateful for their
service. America's intelligence professionals have been
pivotal to the major successes in the War on Terror &endash;
disrupting multiple planned terrorist attacks around the
world, continuing to expand our insight into terrorist
organizations and plans, and greatly enhancing working
relationships with foreign partners.
Working together, the President and the Republican Congress
have steadfastly advanced toward the goal of an integrated,
unified national intelligence effort. They have taken
important steps to expand and strengthen America's
intelligence system and capabilities, including reversing
devastating cuts in the intelligence community budget and
closing dangerous gaps between counterterrorism intelligence
collected abroad and at home by creating the Terrorist
Threat Integration Center and consolidating all U.S.
government watchlist information on suspected terrorists in
the new Terrorist Screening Center. They have also broken
down the unnecessary "wall" between intelligence and law
enforcement with the PATRIOT Act. Because it has proved to
be instrumental in helping to break up terror cells and
plots and seizing terrorist assets, Republicans believe that
Congress needs to reauthorize this important law.
We applaud President Bush's continued strong leadership in
intelligence reform. We share the guiding principles for
reform that President Bush has laid out, including:
- increasing both the quality and quantity of human
intelligence collection to disrupt terrorist attacks;
- investing more in our technical intelligence
capabilities so that we stay ahead of our enemies'
changing communications technology and tactics; and
- ensuring the most effective and coordinated use of
these resources and personnel.
It is essential that the people in government responsible
for defending America and countering terrorism have the best
possible information to make the best decisions about the
safety of our country. We therefore support President Bush's
request to Congress to create the position of a National
Intelligence Director to be appointed by the President with
the advice and consent of the Senate. The National
Intelligence Director will serve as the President's
principal intelligence advisor and will oversee the foreign
and domestic activities of the intelligence community.
We also support President Bush's plan to establish a
National Counterterrorism Center that will build on the
analytical work of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center
and become our government's knowledge bank for information
about known and suspected terrorists. The new center will
coordinate and monitor counterterrorism plans and activities
of all government agencies and departments to ensure
effective joint action, and to ensure that our efforts are
unified in priority and purpose. The center will also be
responsible for preparing the daily terrorism threat report
for the President and senior officials. We also support
President Bush's judgment that legislative oversight of
intelligence and homeland security must be restructured and
made more effective. Currently there are too many committees
with overlapping jurisdiction, which wastes time and makes
it difficult for meaningful oversight and reform.
Honoring and Supporting Our Armed Forces
America's men and women in uniform are currently on the
front lines of the War on Terror. In the midst of a global
struggle, the armed services continue to meet their goals
for new recruits and retentions, and every American is
grateful for the patriotism and honor of these soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and Marines. Republicans hail their
historic achievements since September 11, 2001 &endash;
especially the removal of the repressive regimes of the
Taliban and Saddam Hussein. Their victories on the
battlefield have not only made America safer but are making
way for new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are
paving the way for societies that are free.
With the support of the Republican Congress, President Bush
has consistently built defense strength. Defense spending
has only been higher twice since World War II &endash;
during the Korean War and at the peak of the Cold War
buildup. These long-overdue budget increases help fulfill
the President's commitments and ensure a fighting force that
is second to none.
In 2000, the President promised to provide members of the
Armed Forces "better pay, better treatment, and better
training." He has fulfilled that promise to our troops.
Supported by the Republican Congress, President Bush has
increased basic pay by nearly 21 percent. Many
servicemembers have seen much more than that. The increase
in basic salary and payments for food and housing has
reached nearly 30 percent. We hail those much-deserved
increases, as well as the action of the President and the
Republican Congress in this year's Defense Appropriations
Act to fund permanent increases for the Family Separation
Allowance and Imminent Danger Pay.
Until the mid-1990s, servicemembers who lived off-base were
expected to pay for 15 percent of their housing costs. In
reality, this cost grew to almost 20 percent. Republicans
applaud the leadership of the President and the Republican
Congress for making sure that by the end of 2005,
out-of-pocket expenses will be eliminated, meaning that the
average servicemember who lives off-base will have all basic
housing costs covered.
President Bush and the Republican Congress have also
increased funds for defense health programs, including
improving medical services for Ready Reserve members and
their families.
The men and women of the National Guard and Reserve are an
important part of the nation's military readiness, and we
will maintain their strength in the states. Their role as
citizen soldiers must continue to be a proud tradition that
links every community in the country with the cause of
national security. We affirm traditional military culture,
and we affirm that homosexuality is incompatible with
military service. The Republican Party created the
all-volunteer force and opposes reinstitution of the draft,
whether directly or through compulsory national service. We
support the advancement of women in the military, support
their exemption from ground combat units, and support the
implementation of the recommendations of the Kassebaum
Commission, which unanimously recommended that co-ed basic
training be ended. We support sound priorities in the making
of personnel policies, and candid analysis of the
consequences of unprecedented social changes in the
military.
As the traditional advocate of America's veterans, the
Republican Party has continued to fulfill America's
obligations to them. When President Bush took office, many
of the programs designed to assist veterans cried out for
modernization and reform. President Bush and Congress have
increased funding for VA health care by more than 40 percent
since 2001. This additional funding has made it possible for
the VA to improve health care access for veterans who need
it most, including low-income veterans, those with
service-related disabilities, and those who need VA's
specialized services. President Bush signed into law
authorization for the concurrent receipt of both military
retired pay and VA disability compensation for
combat-injured and highly-disabled veterans. We support
these actions to keep faith with America's veterans and
applaud President Bush and the Republican Congress for
attending to the solemn duty of maintaining and expanding
our national cemeteries.
In promising "better training," the President committed to
strengthen the military readiness of our soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and Marines. Since taking office, the President has
added billions to operations and maintenance accounts to
make good on this promise. This investment is paying off as
critical readiness indicators are improving. However, the
real proof of military readiness is combat performance. Our
combined military forces have demonstrated overwhelming
combat effectiveness in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in other
operations around the world. The readiness of U.S. Armed
Forces to carry out combat operations anywhere in the world
is now unparalleled.
The vast majority of Americans agree that when our troops
are engaged in battle, we have a responsibility to provide
everything they need to complete their mission. It is
irresponsible for public officials to support sending
Americans into battle and then reject the funding they need
for such things as ammunition, body armor, and better health
care for their dependents. We call to account the Democratic
nominees for President and Vice President, both of whom
voted to authorize war in Iraq then later rejected
legislation to provide $87 billion in critical supplies and
benefits for servicemembers and their families. Earlier this
year, Senator Kerry claimed to have "voted for the $87
billion before [he] voted against it." Recently he
said he was "proud" of his vote against supporting our
troops. And in yet another attempt to explain his
irresponsible vote, Senator Kerry claimed his decision was
"complicated." Republicans affirm that there is nothing
complicated about supporting soldiers in battle. America's
Commander in Chief must always support the men and women on
the frontlines, and we applaud President Bush for his
steadfast support of our military.
President Bush also fulfilled his promise to begin
transforming how our nation organizes and equips itself to
fight 21st Century adversaries. Leveraging rapidly changing
technology with flexible organizations and adaptable
doctrine, the President and the Republican Congress have led
the transformation of the U.S. military to become lighter,
faster, and more lethal. To support the President's
transformational goals, the Administration has worked with
the Republican Congress to:
- double investment in missile defense systems to put
America on track to field an operational system in
2004;
- dramatically increase R&D investments;
- commit a significant amount of the procurement budget
to transformation; and
- pursue transformational programs across the services
such as the Army's Future
Combat System, the Navy's conversion of ballistic missile
submarines to guided missile submarines, and the Air Force's
unmanned combat aerial vehicles.
In December 2002, President Bush directed the deployment of
a missile defense system to protect the United States from
the threat of long-range missiles with the ability to
deliver weapons of mass destruction. The 2005 Defense
Appropriations Act provides $10 billion for systems to
defend against the threat from ballistic missiles. Later
this year, the first components of America's missile defense
system will become operational. This will fulfill a pledge
that President Bush made to the American people more than
four years ago. America and our allies face a deadly threat
from ballistic missiles armed with the world's most
dangerous weapons.
Republicans affirm that America must deploy the technologies
necessary to protect our people. Republicans applaud
President Bush's announcement of the most comprehensive
restructuring of U.S. military forces overseas since the end
of the Korean War. By closing bases overseas that are no
longer needed to meet Cold War threats that have ended, his
new initiative will bring home many Cold War-era forces
while deploying more flexible and rapidly deployable
capabilities in strategic locations around the world. The
plan will make America safer by better preparing our
military to address the new dangers associated with rogue
nations, global terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction.
It will also give our servicemembers more time on the home
front and fewer moves over a career. It will give military
spouses fewer job changes and offer greater stability for
their families. It will save the taxpayers money by closing
hundreds of unneeded facilities around the world.
Republicans know that workers in the defense industry and
broader civilian sector &endash; including manufacturing
workers, engineers, scientists, and farmers &endash; who
supply our Armed Forces with cutting-edge weapons, combat
materiel, and sustenance are also vital to the success of
our troops on the battlefield. We hail their indispensable
contributions to victory in the War on Terror.
Building a Better World Based on Democratic Governments,
Free Markets, and International Compassion
Republicans applaud President Bush for launching
groundbreaking efforts to address the needs and hopes of the
world's poor, cutting across traditional boundaries to focus
on what works. We agree with President Bush that the United
States must use this moment of opportunity to extend the
benefits of freedom across the globe &endash; by actively
working to bring the hope of democracy, development, free
markets, and free trade to every corner of the world. The
events of September 11, 2001, taught us that weak states,
like Afghanistan, can pose as great a danger to our national
interests as strong states. Poverty does not make poor
people into terrorists and murderers. Yet poverty, weak
institutions, and corruption can make weak states vulnerable
to terrorist networks and drug cartels within their
borders.
Republicans believe that a world where some live in comfort
and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than
$2 a day, is neither just nor stable. We applaud President
Bush and the Republican Congress for their leadership and
moral clarity in making the inclusion of all of the world's
poor in an expanding circle of development &endash; and
opportunity &endash; one of the top priorities of U.S.
international policy.
Decades of massive development assistance have failed to
spur economic growth in the poorest countries. Worse,
development aid has often served to prop up failed policies,
relieving the pressure for reform and perpetuating misery.
Results of aid are typically measured in dollars spent by
donors, not in the rates of growth and poverty reduction
achieved by recipients. These are the indicators of a failed
strategy.
Working with other nations, and under the leadership of
President Bush and the Republican Congress, the United
States has confronted this failure. President Bush helped to
forge a new consensus at the United Nations Conference on
Financing for Development in Monterrey that the objectives
of assistance &endash; and the strategies to achieve those
objectives &endash; must change.
Republicans support the President's goal to help unleash the
productive potential of individuals in all nations.
Sustained growth and poverty reduction are impossible
without the right national policies. Where governments have
implemented real policy changes, we will provide significant
new levels of assistance. The United States and other
developed countries should set an ambitious and specific
target: to double the size of the world's poorest economies
within a decade.
We endorse the strategies that the United States is pursuing
to achieve this goal, including:
- providing resources through the Millennium Challenge
Account to aid countries that have met the challenge of
reform;
- improving the effectiveness of the World Bank and
other development banks in raising living standards;
- insisting upon measurable results to ensure that
development assistance is actually making a difference in
the lives of the world's poor;
- increasing the amount of development assistance that
is provided in the form of grants instead of loans;
- opening societies to commerce and investment;
- enhancing public health in countries afflicted by
epidemics and pandemics like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and
tuberculosis;
- emphasizing education, literacy, and learning as the
foundation of democracy and development; and
- continuing to aid agricultural development.
Republicans know that a strong world economy enhances our
national security by advancing prosperity and freedom in the
rest of the world. Economic growth supported by free trade
and free markets creates new jobs and higher incomes. It
allows people to lift their lives out of poverty, spurs
economic and legal reform, enhances the fight against
corruption, and reinforces the habits of liberty.
Under Republican leadership, the United States has fostered
an environment of economic openness to capitalize on our
country's greatest asset in the information age: a vital,
innovative society that welcomes creative ideas and adapts
to them. American companies continue to show the world
innovative ways to improve productivity and redraw
traditional business models. Upon this extraordinary
foundation, President Bush and the Republican Congress have
rebuilt an effective American trade policy. Rooted in
America's political and economic ideals, the Republican
blueprint they have implemented promotes open markets and
open societies, free trade and the free flow of information,
and the development of new ideas and private sectors. This
self-sustaining economic and commercial progress has
nurtured the human spirit, the middle class, law, and
liberty.
Republicans applaud the renewal of the
executive-Congressional partnership on trade matters under
Republican leadership. After a gap of eight years, the
Administration reestablished majority support in the
Congress for free and fair trade by passing Trade Promotion
Authority and the other market-opening measures for
developing countries in the Trade Act of 2002.
We commend the strong record of President Bush and the
Republican Congress in using their authority to promote
economic growth and economic freedom beyond America's
shores, especially through free trade initiatives. We
support the Administration's comprehensive strategy to
promote free trade, exemplified by the launch of the Doha
negotiation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional
and sub-regional initiatives such as the Central American
Free Trade Agreement, the Free Trade Area of the Americas,
and the Middle East Free Trade Area, extension of the
African Growth and Opportunity Act, and the conclusion of
bilateral free trade agreements with nations such as
Australia, Morocco, Chile, and Singapore.
We hail the strong record of President Bush and the
Republican Congress in:
- completing agreements with 12 countries, and
currently negotiating with 10 other nations, to reduce
trade barriers &endash; together, these 22 nations
represent America's third largest export market, with
economies totaling $2.5 trillion in purchasing
power;
- enforcing trade agreements and laws against unfair
practices, including staunch opposition to regulations
that impede farm exports and improved agriculture;
- opposing unfair manipulation of currency rates by
U.S. trading partners; and
- taking timely action to help domestic industries and
workers adjust to foreign competition, including through
safeguard actions in support of America's manufacturing
sector and trade adjustment assistance for workers;
- incorporating appropriate labor and environmental
concerns into U.S. trade negotiations, promoting mutually
supportive trade and environmental policies and
agreements; and
- using the International Labor Organization, trade
preference programs, and trade talks to improve working
conditions in conjunction with freer trade.
We recognize that there is a fundamental connection
between trade and development. Trade policies can help
developing countries strengthen property rights,
competition, the rule of law, investment, the spread of
knowledge, open societies, the efficient allocation of
resources, and regional integration &endash; all leading to
growth, opportunity, and confidence in developing countries.
We therefore welcome the Republican-led reauthorization in
the Trade Act of 2002 of preference programs with the
nations of the Caribbean and Andean regions.
Steady American Leadership in the World
We affirm America's role in leading the world toward greater
freedom, opportunity, and prosperity. Our efforts to expand
the reach of economic and political freedom are complemented
by our work in fostering religious liberty. Republicans will
continue to make the protection and promotion of religious
freedom abroad a cardinal principle of our foreign policy.
This reflects our national values and protects our national
interests, and renders our actions in the world consistent
with our ideals as a people. America is a working example of
religious liberty, home to millions of Christians, Jews,
Muslims, and people of many other faiths who live in harmony
and contribute to our culture. In the President's words, "It
is not an accident that freedom of religion is one of the
central freedoms in our Bill of Rights. It is the first
freedom of the human soul.… We must stand for that
freedom in our country. We must speak for that freedom in
the world." We applaud President Bush's record of
accomplishment in broadening the realm of liberty and
promoting prosperity and opportunity in the world, and we
endorse his vision for the future.
International Institutions
Republicans are guided by the conviction that no nation can
build a safer, better world alone. In addition to NATO, the
Organization of American States, and other longstanding
alliances, the United States is committed to lasting
institutions like the United Nations and the World Trade
Organization. While international organizations can serve
the cause of peace, Republicans believe they can never serve
as a substitute for, or exercise a veto over, principled
American leadership. The United Nations was not designed to
summon or lead armies in the field and, as a matter of U.S.
sovereignty, American troops must never serve under United
Nations command.
The United Nations can provide a valuable forum for nations
to peacefully resolve their differences, and it can help
monitor international agreements and organize international
humanitarian assistance. Under Republican leadership, the
United States will pay a fair, not disproportionate, share
of dues to the United Nations, which must continue to reform
its management and take steps to eliminate waste, fraud, and
abuse. All funds that the U.S. contributes for operations,
conferences, and peacekeeping should count against these
dues.
We hail the actions of President Bush and the Republican
Congress to ensure that our nation's efforts to meet our
global security commitments and protect Americans are not
impaired by the potential for investigations, inquiry, or
prosecution by the International Criminal Court, whose
jurisdiction we do not accept as extending to Americans. We
support full implementation of the American Servicemembers
Protection Act, whose provisions are intended to ensure and
enhance the protection of U.S. personnel and officials.
We applaud President Bush and the Republican Congress for
working to end the unacceptable discrimination against
Israel at the United Nations, by that institution's denying
committee assignments to Israel. We welcome Israel's
membership in the Western European and Others Group at the
United Nations headquarters and urge its full acceptance at
other United Nations venues. We support adoption of
bipartisan legislation to withhold the annual headquarters
contribution made by the U.S. Department of State to the
International Committee of the Red Cross if Magen David Adom
is not given the opportunity to participate fully in the
activities of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement.
Republicans continue to oppose the ideological campaign
against participation by the Vatican in United Nations
conferences and other activities. The United Nations was
created to benefit all peoples and nations, not to promote a
radical agenda of social engineering. Any effort to address
global social problems must be firmly placed within a
context of respect for the fundamental social institutions
of marriage and family. We reject any treaty or convention
that would contradict these values. For that reason, we
support protecting the rights of families in international
programs and oppose funding organizations involved in
abortion. Republicans support the leadership of President
Bush and Vice President Cheney in speaking out honestly
about violations of the nonnegotiable demands of human
dignity using our voice and vote in international
institutions to advance freedom. Worldwide, at least 600,000
to 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international
borders each year. Of those, it is believed that more than
80 percent are women and girls, and that 70 percent of them
were forced into sexual servitude. We applaud the President
for his efforts to rally the international community,
including at the United Nations, in combating human
trafficking, for his call to the nations of the world to
pass laws criminalizing these abhorrent practices, and for
working with Republicans in Congress to provide the funds
necessary to combat trafficking on the international level.
We also praise President Bush for his efforts at home, where
he has tripled the number of traffickers criminally charged
and doubled the number of convictions, while supporting the
good work of organizations that are rescuing women and
children from exploitation.
Neighborhood of the Americas
Republicans believe that sound American foreign policy
starts in our own neighborhood. Family and faith, culture
and commerce, are enduring bonds among all the peoples of
the Americas. Our nation's future is fundamentally linked to
our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. Republicans share
President Bush's vision of the Americas as a fully
democratic hemisphere, working together to achieve
representative democracy, security, and market-based
development. We also applaud his proven track record in
advancing trade liberalization in the Americas in order to
promote economic development and democratic governance.
We praise President Bush's strong record of serious and
sustained attention to the American neighborhood and
coalition-building with countries such as Mexico, Canada,
Brazil, Chile, and Colombia that share our democratic
priorities.
Under President Bush's leadership, the United States and
Mexico have developed a historic level of trust and mutual
respect. Strengthened by common values and purposes, this
relationship has provided an unprecedented degree of
bilateral cooperation. Republicans believe that it is a high
national priority for America to continue building on that
cooperation with Mexico over the coming years to ensure
safe, orderly, and legal migration flows; further reduce the
cost of remittances; expand access to credit for small
business entrepreneurs; and further strengthen bilateral
ties in education, civil society, housing, agriculture,
infrastructure, communications, and information
technologies. Republicans also recognize that as a respected
voice in the region, Mexico will continue to be a vital
partner in supporting democracy throughout the hemisphere,
as demonstrated by Mexico's contributions to regional and
multilateral approaches in Bolivia and Venezuela.
Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the United
States has received excellent cooperation from our
hemispheric partners to combat terror in North America. In
particular, our longstanding allies Canada and Mexico have
been steadfast partners in joint efforts to enhance border
security, while ensuring that the swift pace of legal
movement of people and goods along our land borders is
maintained.
Republicans applaud Canada's contributions to the War on
Terror, not only as a partner in the Americas but as a
steadfast transatlantic ally, including in deployments
during Operation Enduring Freedom and in the current
NATO-led operation in Afghanistan. We also appreciate the
continuing participation of El Salvador in the multinational
force in Iraq, as well as the past contributions of the
Dominican Republic and Honduras in support of the goal of
stability and democracy for the Iraqi people.
Republicans support the leadership of the President and the
Republican Congress to advance prosperity throughout the
Americas through free trade. We applaud the U.S.- Chile Free
Trade Agreement implemented by the Bush Administration
&endash; the first such agreement with a South American
nation in U.S. history. We also applaud President Bush's
conclusion of a free trade agreement with six countries in
our neighborhood &endash; Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.
We support the President's goal of negotiating free trade
agreements with Panama and the Andean nations. These
initiatives complement the goal of achieving a genuine,
comprehensive free trade area in the hemisphere. As
Republicans, we believe that the Free Trade Area of the
Americas is the best route to achieving that goal.
Our Party believes that the United States must continue to
support the democracies of South America with strong
economic and security assistance. We therefore endorse the
increased support that the President and the Republican
Congress have provided to Colombia in the fight against
narco-terrorists, in the eradication of coca and poppy
crops, and in the interdiction of illicit drugs and the
extradition of criminals. We also support the Bush
Administration's active strategy to help the Andean nations
adjust their economies, enforce their laws, defeat terrorist
organizations, and cut off the supply of illegal drugs.
We share President Bush's commitment to strengthening the
region's democratic institutions by working with leaders in
the region to promote good governance and combat corruption.
We applaud the Administration's work with regional
institutions, such as the Summit of the Americas process,
the Organization of American States, and the Defense
Ministerial of the Americas. Republicans support the Bush
Administration's efforts to achieve a peaceful, democratic,
constitutional, and electoral solution to Venezuela's
political crisis.
The Castro regime is an anachronism in a region where
democracy and open markets prevail. The current political
and economic crisis in Cuba reflects four decades of
Castro's failed policies. The Cuban government rightfully
remains on the State Department's Terrorist List due to its
continued support for terrorism, including the harboring of
fugitives from justice wanted in the United States for
terrorism-related offenses. The Castro regime continues to
pursue policies of Marxist-Leninist dictatorship, police
state tactics, and total economic control. Because of these
policies, the Castro regime remains hostile to America's
interests and values.
As Republicans, we support President Bush's principled
position that the current embargo on trade with, and
restrictions on travel to, Cuba must remain in place as
along as the Cuban government refuses to hold free and fair
elections, ease its stranglehold on private enterprise, and
allow the Cuban people to organize, assemble, and speak
freely.
Republicans understand that the Castro regime will not
change by its own choice. But Cuba must change. That is why
we support President Bush's decision to provide additional
resources for:
- democracy-building activities in Cuba, support for
the family members of the political opposition, and
support for efforts to help youth, women, and Afro-Cubans
take their rightful place in the pro-democracy
movement;
- regular airborne broadcasts to Cuba and the purchase
of a dedicated airborne platform for the transmission of
Radio and Television Martí into Cuba; and
- public diplomacy efforts to disseminate information
abroad about Castro's record of abusing human rights,
harboring terrorists, committing espionage against other
countries, and fomenting subversion of democratically
elected governments in Latin America.
Republicans applaud the work of the President's
Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, which identified
measures to help the Cuban people bring to an end the Castro
dictatorship and provided a plan for agile, effective, and
decisive assistance to the people of Cuba when they have
finally achieved freedom and democracy. We support the
Commission's recommendations, which include:
- denying resources and legitimacy to the Castro regime
by eliminating abuses of educational travel programs;
- countering the regime's manipulation of our
humanitarian policies by limiting recipients of
remittances and gift parcels to immediate family members;
and
- limiting family visits to Cuba to immediate
family.
Republicans also support efforts to increase the number
of new migrants admitted from Cuba through a safe, legal,
and orderly process and believe that the United States
should adhere to the principles established by the 1966
Cuban Adjustment Act, which recognizes the rights of Cuban
refugees fleeing communist tyranny.
Republicans applaud the strong support President Bush has
demonstrated for the people of Haiti and agree that it is
essential that Haiti have a hopeful future. We support the
President's leadership of multilateral efforts to bring
order and stability to Haiti and assist the Haitian people
in achieving a democratic and constitutional government.
American troops and their partners in the initial
stabilization force from France, Canada, and Chile responded
swiftly and humanely to the needs of the Haitian people. We
applaud the contributions of Brazil, Argentina, Chile,
Uruguay, Canada, Spain, and other nations to the current
peacekeeping force, as well as financial pledges from the
international community to provide economic and humanitarian
assistance to the Haitian people.
Africa
Republicans believe that because Africans and Americans
share a belief in the values of liberty and dignity, we must
share in the labor of advancing those values. We endorse
President Bush's conviction that in a time of growing
commerce across the globe, America must work to ensure that
the nations of Africa are full partners in the trade and
prosperity of the world. Under the leadership of President
Bush and the Republican Congress, our nation is standing
together with leaders in Africa against the tragic violence
of civil war and against the merciless terrorists who
threaten every nation. We are answering the challenge of
desperate hunger with human compassion and the tools of
human technology. In the face of spreading disease, we are
joining with courageous people throughout the continent who
are turning the tide against HIV/AIDS in Africa.
We applaud the President's leadership in establishing an
unprecedented level of engagement with Africa, exemplified
by the high priority placed on dialogue between the
President and his African counterparts and supported by
historic initiatives such as the Millennium Challenge
Account (MCA), the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief, and the African Education Initiative. We further
commend President Bush for visiting South Africa, Nigeria,
Senegal, Botswana, and Uganda last year &endash; the first
Republican President to do so.
Republicans believe that South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and
Ethiopia are leaders for regional engagement and require
focused attention. We applaud the President and the
Republican Congress for deepening American engagement with
those nations. Republicans also applaud increased support
for African nations that have chosen the path of economic,
political, and social reform and are therefore eligible for
funding from the MCA: Senegal, Ghana, Benin, Cape Verde,
Mali, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Lesotho. We believe that
to be effective, development aid requires pro-growth
policies and strong reforms in the nations that receive aid.
We endorse the MCA's direction of resources to countries
with governments that rule justly, root out corruption,
encourage entrepreneurship, and invest in the health and
education of their people.
Republicans also applaud the strong record of President Bush
and the Republican Congress in promoting development and
economic growth in Africa as a means to eradicating poverty
and encouraging the habits of freedom and enterprise. The
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is bringing
hundreds of thousands of jobs and investment opportunity to
sub-Saharan Africa. Under President Bush's leadership,
Congress has extended AGOA beyond 2008 &endash; an
achievement that will help give businesses the confidence to
make long-term investments in Africa. Republicans believe
that the United States must continue to work to complete a
free trade agreement with the nations of the Southern
African Customs Union to create new opportunities for
farmers and workers and entrepreneurs all across Africa. We
also applaud the efforts of the Bush Administration to
strengthen and broaden capital markets on the continent.
With the ability to borrow money to buy homes and to start
businesses, more Africans will have the tools to achieve
their dreams.
Republicans also commend President Bush and the Republican
Congress for helping to provide Africa's children with the
advantages of literacy and basic education through the
Africa Education Initiative. This important initiative will
provide teacher training, textbooks, and scholarships for
girls to improve primary education on the continent.
Many of Africa's leaders are committed to the spread of
democratic institutions and democratic values throughout
their continent. Yet those institutions and values are
threatened in some parts of Africa by terrorism, chaos, and
civil war. To extend liberty in Africa, we must help African
leaders who seek to achieve security and peace on the
continent.
Republicans believe that together with our allies and
friends, America must help strengthen Africa's fragile
states, help build indigenous capability to secure porous
borders, and help build up the law enforcement and
intelligence infrastructures to deny havens for terrorists.
An ever more lethal environment exists in Africa as local
civil wars spread beyond borders to create regional war
zones. Forming coalitions and cooperative security
arrangements is key to confronting these emerging
transnational threats.
We welcome President Bush's leadership in the establishment
of a consensus among the G-8 nations to support peacekeeping
capabilities among the nations of Africa, so that they may
more effectively prevent and resolve violent conflict on the
continent.
Republicans applaud President Bush's strong record of
promoting regional peace and stability and helping to end
conflict and war on the continent. Working in concert with
allies, friends, and international institutions, the Bush
Administration has helped achieve progress toward resolving
conflicts in Liberia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Sierra Leone, and Sudan.
We applaud the efforts of the Bush Administration in working
closely with the Government of Sudan and the Sudanese
People's Liberation Movement to bring peace to Sudan.
Sudan's civil war is one of the worst humanitarian tragedies
of our time, responsible for the deaths of two million
people over two decades. Achieving peace, and concluding a
just and comprehensive agreement, must be an urgent priority
for both sides in Sudan. President Bush has made peace in
Sudan a top priority of his foreign policy, including the
appointment of a Special Envoy to facilitate discussions and
the signing of the Sudan Peace Act. The President's
commitment has paved the way for significant progress and we
welcome continued movement this year toward a comprehensive
peace agreement that will put an end to 20 years of conflict
in southern Sudan.
We commend the efforts of the President and the Republican
Congress to help the people of Darfur, in western Sudan.
Brutal militias there are causing human suffering on an
immense scale. American assistance has been provided for
famine relief, assistance for refugees, and other
humanitarian aid. Yet no amount of aid can substitute for
true and lasting peace. The Government of Sudan must stop
the violence of Janjaweed militias, and all parties must
respect the cease-fire and allow the free movement of
humanitarian workers and supplies. We continue to hope for
peace for the people of Sudan and for normalization of
relations between Sudan and the United States. However, the
Government of Sudan must not remain complicit in the
brutalization of Darfur.
Republicans deplore the Government of Zimbabwe's refusal to
adhere to the rule of law. The Bush Administration has
rightly condemned the Government of Zimbabwe's assaults
against human rights. We support the President's decision to
suspend nonhumanitarian aid and impose targeted sanctions on
the Zimbabwean regime and its supporters.
Republicans recognize that several African governments face
particular dangers from terrorists, including in East
Africa. The Bush Administration is working closely with
those nations to fight terror, and the Republican Congress
has expanded efforts to help governments in East Africa
protect their people and to fight terrorist networks. We
will not allow terrorists to threaten African peoples, or to
use Africa as a base to threaten the world. We hail the
continuing cooperation of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda,
Tanzania, and other African nations in the War on
Terror.
Republicans are proud of President Bush's historic
leadership that has placed America at the forefront of
helping the people of Africa, their governments, and private
groups combat the catastrophic HIV/AIDS pandemic. We hail
the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a five-year,
$15 billion initiative, strongly backed by the Congress, to
turn the tide against HIV/AIDS in the most afflicted nations
of Africa and the Caribbean. By undertaking a comprehensive
approach to the pandemic that involves education,
abstinence, prevention, testing, treatment, and care
&endash; including advanced antiretroviral drugs &endash;
the President's groundbreaking initiative follows in the
finest American tradition of harnessing the power of human
technology in the service of human compassion. We also
applaud other major steps by President Bush and the
Republican Congress to make fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic a
priority of U.S. foreign policy, including America's
contribution to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and other initiatives.
The United States is leading the world by example and the
global community can &endash; and must &endash; do more to
halt the advance of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We applaud the
numerous African, American, and other international private
organizations &endash; including faith-based groups,
hospitals, medical schools, corporations, and philanthropies
&endash; that are helping the people of Africa as they fight
HIV/AIDS with courage. The progress we are already seeing in
parts of Africa is proof that HIV/AIDS can be defeated.
Across the Pacific
Republicans believe that, as in every region of the world,
America's foreign policy in Asia starts with its allies:
Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and the
Philippines. In the Asia-Pacific region, these alliances are
bolstered by strong relationships with American friends such
as Singapore, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and New Zealand.
President Bush has demonstrated a clear commitment to the
region, and Republicans recognize that under his leadership,
alliance relations in Asia have never been better. In every
major security issue of our time &endash; including
counterterrorism, nonproliferation, Iraq, and North Korea
&endash; our allies in Asia are providing unprecedented
cooperation. The Republican Party hails the brave and
energetic response of America's allies in the Asia-Pacific
region in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
- Australia invoked the ANZUS Treaty to declare that
the September 11th attacks were attacks on Australia
itself, following that historic decision with the
dispatch of some of the world's finest combat forces for
Operation Enduring Freedom.
- Japan and the Republic of Korea provided
unprecedented levels of military logistical support
within weeks of the terrorist attacks.
- America has deepened cooperation on counterterrorism
with our alliance partners in Thailand and the
Philippines and received invaluable assistance from close
friends like Singapore and New Zealand.
Republicans also applaud Australia, Japan, the Republic
of Korea, and other nations in the Asia-Pacific region for
their contributions to the multinational effort to achieve
security and democracy for the Iraqi people.
Japan is a key partner of the United States and the
U.S.-Japan alliance is an important foundation of peace,
stability, security, and prosperity in Asia. America
supports an economically vibrant and open Japan that serves
as an engine of expanding prosperity and trade in the
Asia-Pacific region. Republicans support an American policy
in the Asia-Pacific region that looks to Japan to continue
forging a leading role in regional and global affairs based
on our common interests, our common values, and our close
defense and diplomatic cooperation.
The Republic of Korea is a valued democratic ally of the
United States. Our two nations are maintaining vigilance
toward North Korea while preparing our alliance to make
contributions to the broader stability of the region over
the longer term. In concert with America's allies South
Korea and Japan, and supported by China and Russia, our
nation is leading the international community to speak with
one voice to demand the complete, verifiable, and
irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear
programs. Republicans support the Bush Administration's
efforts to protect the peace on the Korean peninsula. North
Korea lies outside of the international system. Americans
have shed their blood to stop North Korean aggression before
and remain prepared to resist aggression today.
After fighting together in both world wars, the United
States forged a formal alliance with Australia. Australians
have stood shoulder to shoulder with Americans in every
major conflict since &endash; Korea, Vietnam, the Persian
Gulf War, and now Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi
Freedom. Republicans hail the signing into law of the U.S.-
Australia Free Trade Agreement and look forward to building
on more than 50 years of alliance cooperation to resolve
regional and global problems.
American ties to the Philippines have been close for more
than a hundred years. We Republicans have supported the
victory of Filipino democracy and cherish our continuing
friendship with this great nation and its people who have
been by our side in war and in peace.
Under President Bush's leadership, the United States has
undertaken an historic transformation in its bilateral
relationship with India, based upon his conviction that U.S.
interests require a strong relationship between the world's
largest democracies. Since 2001, the United States has
started with a view of India as a growing world power with
which we have common security interests and a shared,
fundamental commitment to political freedom and
representative government. Through a strong partnership with
India, we can best address any differences and shape a
dynamic future. The prospects for that partnership were
further enhanced by the announcement this January of the
"Next Steps in Strategic Partnership" between the United
States and India, a new effort to further deepen and
accelerate cooperation between our two nations.
Republicans applaud India's move toward greater economic
freedom. We hold a common interest in the free flow of
commerce, including through the vital sea lanes of the
Indian Ocean. Bilateral trade between the U.S. and India
increased from $15.9 billion in 2002 to nearly $18 billion
in 2003, with U.S. exports to India increasing by 22
percent, the largest increase ever. Finally, we share the
commitment to fighting terrorism and creating a
strategically stable Asia.
Republicans support President Bush's view that America must
maintain forces in the Asia-Pacific region that reflect our
commitments to our allies, our security requirements, our
technological advances, and the strategic environment.
America will also build on stability provided by our Asian
alliances, as well as with institutions such as ASEAN and
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, to develop a
mix of regional and bilateral strategies to advance progress
and deepen our ties to the peoples of this region.
Republicans applaud President Bush for his leadership in
dramatically refashioning America's relationship with
Pakistan. The United States and Pakistan are working closely
in the fight against terror. We endorse continued American
support for Pakistan's security, economic, and social
programs. Republicans believe that America's relationship
with China is an important part of our strategy to promote a
stable, peaceful, and prosperous Asia-Pacific region. We
welcome the emergence of a strong, peaceful, and prosperous
China. The democratic development of China is crucial to
that future. Yet, a quarter-century after beginning the
process of shedding the worst features of the Communist
legacy, China's leaders have not yet made the next series of
fundamental choices about the character of their state. In
pursuing advanced military capabilities that can threaten
its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region, China is following
an outdated path that, in the end, will hamper its own
pursuit of national greatness. In time, China will find that
social and political freedoms are the only source of that
greatness.
Under President Bush's leadership, the United States has
sought a constructive relationship with a changing China.
Our two nations have cooperated well where our interests
overlap, including the current War on Terror and in
promoting stability on the Korean peninsula. Likewise, we
have coordinated on the future of Afghanistan and have
initiated a comprehensive dialogue on counterterrorism.
Shared health and environmental threats, such as the threat
of HIV/AIDS, SARS, and other infectious diseases, challenge
us to promote jointly the welfare of our citizens.
Addressing these transnational threats will challenge China
to become more open with information, promote the
development of civil society, enhance individual human
rights, and end suppression of the media. To make that
nation accountable to its citizens' needs and aspirations,
much work remains to be done. Only by allowing the Chinese
people to think, speak, assemble, and worship freely can
China reach its full potential. China has discovered that
economic freedom leads to national wealth. China's leaders
will also discover that freedom is indivisible &endash; that
social and religious freedoms are also essential to national
greatness and national dignity. Eventually, men and women
who are allowed to control their own wealth will insist on
controlling their own lives and their own country.
Our important bilateral trade relationship has benefited
from China's entry into the World Trade Organization,
creating export opportunities and jobs for American farmers,
workers, and companies. The power of market principles and
the WTO's requirements for transparency and accountability
have bolstered openness and the rule of law in China.
Republicans support the commitment of President Bush and
Republicans in Congress to ensure that China fulfills its
WTO obligations.
There are, however, other areas in which we have profound
disagreements, including human rights, China's observance of
its nonproliferation commitments, and America's commitment
to the self-defense of Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations
Act. We support President Bush's efforts to narrow
differences where they exist but not to allow them to
preclude cooperation where there is agreement.
The United States government's policy is that there is one
China, as reflected in the three communiqués and the
Taiwan Relations Act. America opposes any unilateral
decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo.
Republicans recognize that America's policy is based on the
principle that there must be no use of force by China
against Taiwan. We deny the right of Beijing to impose its
rule on the free Taiwanese people. All issues regarding
Taiwan's future must be resolved peacefully and must be
agreeable to the people of Taiwan. If China violates these
principles and attacks Taiwan, then the United States will
respond appropriately in accordance with the Taiwan
Relations Act. America will help Taiwan defend itself.
Republicans applaud President Bush and the Republican
Congress for honoring our nation's promises to the people of
Taiwan, a longstanding friend of the United States and a
genuine democracy. Taiwan deserves America's strong support,
including the timely sale of defensive arms to enhance
Taiwan's security. In recognition of its growing importance
in the global economy, Republicans applaud Taiwan's
membership in the World Trade Organization and support its
participation in the World Health Organization and other
multilateral institutions.
America's relations with Vietnam are still overshadowed by
two grave concerns. The first is uncertainty concerning the
Americans who became prisoners of war or were missing in
action. Republicans commend President Bush for enhancing
efforts to obtain the fullest possible accounting for those
still missing and for the repatriation of the remains of
those who died in the cause of freedom. The second is
continued retribution by the government of Vietnam against
its ethnic minorities and others who fought alongside our
forces there. The United States owes those individuals a
debt of honor and will not be blind to their suffering.
The Republican Party is committed to democracy in Burma, and
to Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratic
leaders whose election in 1990 was brutally suppressed and
who have been arrested and imprisoned for their belief in
freedom and democracy. Republicans share with her the view
that the basic principles of human freedom and dignity are
universal. We are committed to working with our allies in
Europe and Asia to maintain a firm and resolute opposition
to the military junta in Rangoon. Because of the strategic
location and historical ties of the Pacific island nations
to the United States, Republicans will continue to work
closely with the countries of this region on a wide variety
of issues of common concern.
Europe
Republicans applaud President Bush for the visionary agenda
he set forth at the beginning of his Administration: the
establishment of a Europe whole, free, and at peace. That
agenda is in the finest tradition of America's historical
commitment to the freedom and security of Europe. It builds
on the legacy of the courageous and resolute leadership of
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, through which
the Cold War was won.
We hail the President's success in achieving unprecedented
cooperation with Europe &endash; at NATO, through the
European Union, and with individual nations &endash; in
combating terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, building peace and democracy in Afghanistan and
Iraq, and advancing the cause of freedom, democracy, and
opportunity throughout the broader Middle East and North
Africa. In particular, we are grateful for the close
friendship and strong partnership with the United Kingdom,
upholding the tradition of a special relationship between
our two nations. Together and with strong U.S. leadership,
America and Europe are decisively confronting the greatest
challenges and boldly seizing the historic opportunities of
our time.
We believe that the security of the United States is
inseparable from the security of Europe. This enduring truth
was reaffirmed by our European allies after the attacks of
September 11, 2001, when NATO invoked its Article V
self-defense clause for the first time in the history of the
Alliance, recognizing that the attack on America was also an
attack on the Alliance as a whole.
Republicans know that a strong NATO is the foundation of
peace in Europe and beyond. We commend NATO's leadership of
the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan
&endash; a mission that has been led in the past by the
United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany, and the Netherlands and is
being supported by European partners such as Ireland,
Albania, and Croatia. We applaud the establishment of a NATO
operation to train Iraqi security forces. We hail those NATO
nations and NATO partners that are contributing forces to
Iraq, including the Polish-led division for which the
Alliance has provided technical support.
Republicans remain steadfast supporters of NATO enlargement.
We recall that the leadership of a Republican Senate helped
Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary return to the
Euro-Atlantic Community through membership in the Alliance.
We hail the President's leadership in NATO's decision to
welcome seven new democracies into the Alliance this year
&endash; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania,
Slovakia, and Slovenia. Republicans support the continued
enlargement of NATO to include other democratic nations
willing and able to share the burden of defending and
advancing our common interests.
Republicans recognize and applaud the fact that especially
since September 11, 2001, some of America's strongest allies
and friends have been the democracies of Central and Eastern
Europe &endash; many of whom inspired the world during the
Cold War by assaulting the Iron Curtain again and again
until it finally crashed down forever.
Republicans hail the participation in the multinational
coalition in Iraq of NATO members that joined the Alliance
in 1999 and 2004 &endash; Poland, Hungary, the Czech
Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and
Slovakia &endash; as well as the contributions of Ukraine,
Georgia, Moldova, Albania, and Macedonia. Through their
dedication to the cause of security and freedom in Iraq,
these nations &endash; together with the United Kingdom,
Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, and Norway
&endash; are demonstrating their commitment to the values
shared by members of the transatlantic community. We also
applaud the contribution of forces in Iraq by Azerbaijan and
Kazakhstan and support strengthening NATO's partnerships
with these nations and their neighbors in the Caucasus and
Central Asia.
President Bush is forging a new relationship with Russia
based on the central reality that the United States and
Russia are no longer strategic adversaries. We hail the
President's visionary leadership in reassessing the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which was a relic of the Cold
War and treated Russia as an enemy. The President has
strengthened this new relationship by concluding the
historic Moscow Treaty on Strategic Reductions, which will
reduce the nuclear arsenals of our two nations to their
lowest levels in decades. President Bush is rightly
refocusing the relationship on emerging and potential common
interests and challenges, especially broadening our already
extensive cooperation in the War on Terror and promoting
beneficial bilateral trade and investment relations. At the
same time, Republicans believe that Russia's uneven
commitment to the basic values of democracy remains a matter
of great concern. We continue to support the independence
and stability of the states of the former Soviet Union in
the belief that a prosperous and stable neighborhood will
reinforce Russia's integration into the Euro- Atlantic
community.
Republicans recognize and hail President Bush's use of the
prestige and influence of the United States to support the
efforts of leaders in Ireland and the United Kingdom and the
many other people of goodwill who are working to achieve a
lasting and peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland. We
endorse President Bush's personal reaffirmation of America's
commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and to its full and
complete implementation, as expressed during his visit to
Northern Ireland in April 2003. We applaud the President's
appointment of a Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, who is
participating in the peace process and supporting efforts of
Ireland and the United Kingdom to restore the democratic
process in Northern Ireland. We share the President's
commitment that America's support for this vital work will
continue.
Republicans support America's commitment to Northern
Ireland's economic development, including our nation's
contributions to the International Fund for Ireland and
private U.S. investment in the North, with care to ensure
fair employment and better opportunities for all. Though the
burdens of history weigh heavily upon that land, we cheer
its people for taking the lead in building for themselves
and for their children a future of peace and understanding.
Our Party continues to support a peaceful settlement for
Cyprus and respect by all parties for the wishes of the
Cypriot people. A fair and lasting Cyprus settlement will
benefit the people of Cyprus, as well as serve the interests
of America and our allies, Greece and Turkey.
The Broader Middle East and North Africa
Republicans share President Bush's understanding that just
as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War,
events in the broader Middle East will set the course for
the victory of free nations in the War on Terror.
It is important to reaffirm that the war we wage against
terrorists is not a battle of faiths. As the home to
millions of Muslim believers, America welcomes the valuable
role of Muslim leaders in promoting peace. We recognize that
acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental
tenets of the Islamic faith. We know that in this struggle
against terrorism free nations have strong allies, of every
faith, including millions of people in the Middle East who
want to live in freedom. As Republicans, we share the
President's conviction that if that region grows in
democracy, prosperity, and hope, the terrorist movement will
lose its sponsors, lose its recruits, and lose the festering
grievances that keep terrorists in business.
We affirm our support for President Bush's Forward Strategy
of Freedom in the Middle East, as well as the Broader Middle
East and North Africa Initiative adopted at the G-8 Summit
this year.
Republicans support efforts by the President, Vice
President, and Republican Congress to ensure that America
takes the side of reformers who are committed to democratic
change. We support doubling the budget for the National
Endowment for Democracy and focusing its new work on
bringing free elections, free markets, free speech, and free
labor unions to the Middle East. We support the President's
expansion of America's public diplomacy efforts, including
the use of radio and television to broadcast uncensored
information and a message of tolerance in Arabic and Persian
to tens of millions of people.
We applaud the commitment represented by the President's
Middle East Partnership Initiative, which funds economic,
political, and educational reform efforts in the Middle East
and champions opportunity for all people of the region,
especially women and youth.
We are pleased that the momentum of freedom in the Middle
East is beginning to benefit women. In Afghanistan, women
are preparing to vote in free elections, having participated
in the drafting of a new constitution and taken on key
responsibilities in a liberated nation. Under the ruthless
grip of the Taliban regime, Afghan girls were barred from
getting an education, and women were banned from holding
jobs and were publicly whipped when they did not follow the
Taliban's rules. Afghanistan's new constitution affords
equal rights to all Afghan citizens, and Afghan women are
now being integrated into the economic, social, and
political life of their liberated country. In Iraq, the
systematic use of rape by Saddam Hussein's regime to
dishonor families has ended, and the country's interim
constitution guarantees all Iraqis the right to vote and
makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender,
ethnicity, or religion.
As a fundamental element of the President's strategy,
Republicans support the expansion of economic opportunities
for the peoples of the Middle East, including through free
trade. We applaud the enactment of free trade agreements
with Jordan and Morocco, and the completion of negotiations
toward such an agreement with Bahrain. We support the
President's goal of a Middle East Free Trade Area by 2013
and highlight the conclusion of Trade and Investment
Framework Agreements with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the
United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Tunisia, among others.
Republicans endorse continued assistance and support for
countries that have made peace with Israel &endash; led by
Egypt and Jordan. We applaud the actions of President Bush
and the Republican Congress to provide both nations with new
grants and loan guarantees to promote economic reform
measures.
The Republican Party shares President Bush's commitment to
the security of America's democratic ally Israel and the
safety of the Israeli people. We remain committed to
ensuring that Israel maintains a qualitative edge in
defensive technology over any potential adversaries.
We believe that terror attacks against Israelis are part of
the same evil as the September 11, 2001, attacks against
America. We recognize Israel's right to defend itself in the
face of homicide bombings and other attacks against the
people of Israel.
We are very concerned about the escalation of anti-Semitic
violence worldwide, including in Europe. This violence has
included physical assaults, use of weapons, arson of
synagogues, and desecration of Jewish cemeteries and
statues. We are proud of President Bush's outspoken
condemnation of anti-Semitism. We share his conviction that
anti-Semitism poisons public debates within democratic
nations and that mankind must come together to fight such
dark impulses.
We support President Bush's vision of two states, Israel and
Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.
However, as he observed in his remarks of June 24, 2002, for
such a vision to become a reality, Palestinians need a new
leadership, not compromised by terror. Like all other
people, Palestinians deserve a government that serves their
interests and listens to their voices. If Palestinians
embrace democracy and the rule of law, confront corruption,
and firmly reject terror, they can count on American support
for the creation of a Palestinian state. The Bush
Administration has been clear about the obligations of Arab
nations in achieving peace in the Middle East.
Republicans agree with President Bush that Israel's plan to
remove all settlements from Gaza and several settlements
from the West Bank is a courageous step toward peace in the
face of continuing terrorist violence. This initiative can
stimulate progress toward peace as laid out in the Road Map
launched by President Bush.
Republicans commend the government of Israel for its desire
to pursue peace, even in the face of continuing terrorist
attacks. This is demonstrated by steps Israel has taken,
such as removing unauthorized outposts and improving the
humanitarian situation by easing restrictions on the
movement of Palestinians not engaged in terrorist
activities. Republicans agree with President Bush's
assessment that an agreed, just, fair, and realistic
framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue,
as part of any final status agreement, will need to be found
through the establishment of a Palestinian state and the
settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in
Israel. We also share the President's view that as part of a
final peace settlement, it is unrealistic to expect that the
outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and
complete return to the armistice lines of 1949. All previous
efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the
same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final
status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of
mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities.
Republicans continue to support moving the U.S. Embassy from
Tel Aviv to Israel's capital, Jerusalem.
In Iran, we continue to see a government that represses its
people, pursues weapons of mass destruction, and supports
terror. We also see Iranian citizens risking intimidation
and death as they speak out for liberty, human rights, and
democracy. The Iranian people have a right to choose their
own government and determine their own destiny. We applaud
President Bush's leadership in ensuring them that the United
States supports their aspirations to live in freedom,
including by broadcasting uncensored information to the
Iranian people nearly 24 hours a day. We also support the
President's practice of forming policy toward Iran based on
Iranian actions, not words, and applaud his Administration's
progress in convincing America's friends and allies, most
importantly in Europe, to join us in a firm, common approach
to ending Iran's nuclear weapons programs. Under President
Bush's leadership, the United States and our European allies
are speaking as plainly as possible to the Iranians, making
it absolutely clear that the development of a nuclear weapon
in Iran is intolerable to the international community.
USHERING IN AN OWNERSHIP ERA
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"The role of government is not to control or dominate
the lives of our citizens. The role of government is to help
our citizens gain the time and the tools to make their own
choices and improve their own lives. That's why I will
continue to work to usher in a new era of ownership and
opportunity in America."
-- President George W. Bush
Ownership gives citizens a vital stake in their
communities and their country. By expanding ownership, we
will help turn economic growth into lasting prosperity. As
Republicans, we trust people to make decisions about how to
spend, save, and invest their own money. We want individuals
to own and control their income. We want people to have a
tangible asset that they can build and rely on, making their
own choices and directing their own future. Ownership should
not be the preserve of the wealthy or the privileged. As
Republicans who believe in the power of ownership to create
better lives, we want more people to own a home. We want
more people to own and build small businesses. We want more
people to own and control their health care. We want more
people to own personal retirement accounts. With President
Bush's leadership we have taken great strides in making the
dream of ownership available to millions of Americans, and
in the next four years the President and Republicans in
Congress will unlock the door to ownership for many
more.
Tax Relief: Making it Happen, Making it Permanent
George W. Bush ran for President on a promise of lower
taxes, so that people could keep more of the income they
earn. He fulfilled that pledge. The fundamental premise of
tax relief is that everyone who pays income taxes should see
their income taxes reduced. The President offered a plan to
lower all tax rates. Republicans in Congress strongly
supported the President's plan. In 2001, President Bush
signed historic tax relief into law. This year, 43 million
families with children are receiving an average tax cut of
over $2,000. The 2001 law:
- Created a new, low 10 percent income tax bracket;
- Lowered individual income tax rates for all Americans
who pay income taxes;
- Doubled the child tax credit to $1,000;
- Reduced the marriage penalty for 33 million married
couples;
- Expanded education IRAs, made pre-paid tuition plans
tax-free, and created a deduction for higher education
expenses;
- Phased-out the death tax that penalizes family-owned
small businesses and farms;
- Simplified and expanded IRAs and 401(k)s so workers
can save more for their retirement; and
- Increased the adoption tax credit and the child care
tax credit.
President Bush and the Republican Congress built on the
reforms of 2001 by passing the Jobs and Growth Act of 2003.
This legislation assisted our economic recovery by
accelerating the 2001 tax relief and encouraging investment.
The tax rates on capital gains and dividend income were
reduced to the same, lower rate of 15 percent to encourage
saving and investment. Seven million senior citizens who
rely on dividend income are benefiting from this tax relief.
The law also quadrupled small business expensing so
entrepreneurs can deduct from their taxes the first $100,000
of investment. Because of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, 111
million families are receiving an average tax cut of over
$1,500 and the overall tax burden on working Americans is
the lowest it has been in 37 years.
We believe that good government is based on a system of
limited taxes and spending. Furthermore, we believe that the
federal government should be limited and restricted to the
functions mandated by the United States Constitution. The
taxation system shou
Many Democrats, however, believe the government has a right
to claim the money earned by working Americans. They fight
any attempt to return the balance of power from Washington
to individual families and businesses. Furthermore, the slim
majority held by Republicans in the Senate and the rules of
the Senate make it difficult to pass permanent tax relief.
All of the tax relief provided over the last four years will
be eliminated in the next six years if Congress does not
take action to make the relief permanent. Our Party endorses
the President's proposals to make tax relief permanent, so
that families and businesses can plan for the future with
confidence. Anything less will result in a significant tax
increase on Americans. Making the tax cuts permanent is a
crucial first step toward expanding ownership and ensuring
that America turns economic growth into lasting prosperity.
The only way to accomplish this goal is to elect a solid
Republican majority to both houses of Congress. We look
forward to a new Congress with larger Republican majorities
working with President Bush to ensure that taxes do not go
back up on American families.
Increasing Saving
More than half of all Americans save and invest in private
markets. We want even more people to build assets that they
own and can use to meet a variety of needs over the course
of their lives. In the past few years President Bush and
Congressional Republicans have passed into law a variety of
measures to improve, simplify, expand, and protect
retirement savings in IRAs, 401(k)s, and other retirement
plans. Their actions
- Increased the amount you can save each year
tax-free.
- Made it easier to take your retirement plan from one
job to the next.
- Allowed women who take time off from work to start a
family to catch up on their missed retirement plan
contributions.
- Required more disclosure for employer sponsored
retirement plans and required that rules apply to both
executives and rank-and-file employees.
Republicans will not rest on this success. We will build
upon it by promoting policies that encourage workers to
save. We support the President's proposal to create a new
Lifetime Savings Account (LSA) so workers can save for a
variety of needs, to consolidate the three types of current
law IRAs into a single Retirement Savings Account (RSA), and
to consolidate numerous employer-based retirement plans into
a single Employer Retirement Savings Account (ERSA). These
account options will promote personal saving, which opens up
more opportunities for the saver and increases private
capital that is available to entrepreneurs for investing,
growing the economy, and creating jobs.
Strengthening Social Security with Ownership
Social Security needs to be strengthened and enhanced for
our children and grandchildren. Republicans remain committed
to the principles the President outlined:
- Anyone now receiving Social Security, or close to
being eligible for it, is guaranteed that their benefits
will not be cut and their taxes will not be raised.
Social Security is a promise made by this country to its
citizens and Republicans will keep that promise.
- Key changes to Social Security should merit
bipartisan agreement so all improvements are a win for
the American people rather than a political victory for
any one party.
- Personal retirement accounts must be the cornerstone
of strengthening and enhancing Social Security. Each of
today's workers should be free to direct a portion of
their payroll taxes to personal investments for their
retirement. It is crucial that individuals be offered a
variety of investment alternatives and that detailed
information be provided to each participant to help them
judge the risks and benefits of each plan. Today's
financial markets offer a variety of investment options,
including some that guarantee a rate of return higher
than the current Social Security system with no risk to
the investor.
- Young people deserve to know their Social Security
will in fact be there when they retire, just as we have
guaranteed it to their grandparents and parents today.
This new generation of American workers deserves to have
ownership of their future. They must have choices.
- Assets in personal accounts should belong to each
individual. Every American should have the opportunity to
build a nest egg for the future and pass along that money
to their children or grandchildren, who could use the
funds to pay for college, buy a home, start a small
business, or begin saving for their own retirement.
- Choice is the key. Any new options for retirement
security should be voluntary, so workers can choose to
remain in the current system or opt for something
different.
This is a challenge that demands leadership. President
Bush has shown this leadership by proposing a bold
alternative to the collapse of Social Security. Along with
Americans everywhere, we pledge to join him in this endeavor
of a lifetime.
Individual ownership of voluntary personal retirement
accounts for today's workers will make Social Security more
equitable, but, just as importantly, will put the system on
sure financial footing. Fifty years ago there were 16
workers to support every one beneficiary of Social Security.
Today there are just 3.3 workers for each beneficiary. By
the time young men and women who are entering the workforce
today turn 65, there will be only two workers for each
beneficiary. Doing nothing is not an option. We must keep
faith with both the past and the future by strengthening and
enhancing Social Security. We believe that everyone who
participates in the Social Security program should use legal
and accurate identification.
President Bush formed a bipartisan commission that
recommended three models for reform and many Republicans in
Congress have exhibited leadership in sponsoring six
different bills. Non-partisan analysis of these proposals
shows that each strengthens Social Security and that each
shares a common characteristic: giving workers the option of
supplementing Social Security with personal retirement
accounts that they own. Our Party supports the efforts of
President Bush and Congressional Republicans to enact
legislation during the next term.
Homeownership
Homeownership is central to the American dream, and
Republicans want to make it a reality for everyone. That
starts with access to capital for entrepreneurs and access
to credit for consumers. Both have improved immensely in the
past four years, resulting in record levels of
homeownership. For the first time, more than half of all
minorities own their home.
We support the President's goal of increasing the number of
minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families by the
end of the decade. Since President Bush announced his
initiative in 2002, an additional 1.6 million minorities
have become homeowners. The Self-Help Homeownership
Opportunities Program helps low-income families purchase a
home. The most significant barrier to homeownership is the
down payment. We support efforts to reduce that barrier,
like the American Dream Downpayment Act and Zero Downpayment
Mortgages. The President and Congress have taken action to
provide counseling and education to help first-time
homebuyers navigate the process of buying a home. The
Administration has also taken steps to alert people to the
dangers of predatory lending, in an effort to help Americans
maintain a positive credit history.
Affordable housing is in the national interest. That is why
the mortgage interest deduction for primary residences was
put into the federal tax code and why tax reform of any kind
should continue to encourage homeownership. We support
efforts to enact the Single-Family Affordable Housing Tax
Credit. At the same time, a balanced national housing policy
must recognize that decent housing includes apartments, and
addresses the needs of all citizens, including renters.
In many areas, housing prices are higher than they need to
be because of regulations that drive up building costs. Some
regulation is of course necessary, and so is sensible
zoning. We urge states and localities to work with local
builders and lenders to eliminate unnecessary burdens that
price many families out of the market. We see no role for
any federal regulation of homebuilding. We do foresee a
larger role for state and local governments in controlling
the federally assisted housing that has been so poorly
managed from Washington. We also encourage the modification
of restrictions that inhibit the rehabilitation of existing
distressed properties.
Small Business
Small businesses are the most potent force of economic
growth and job creation in America. They generate more than
half of our nation's gross domestic product and create seven
out of ten new private-sector jobs in America. Small
businesses have been the primary vehicles of economic
advance for American women.
Republicans pledged in 2000 to lower tax rates for small
business owners and entrepreneurs, end the death tax, cut
red tape, reform our liability system, and aggressively
expand overseas markets for our goods and services. Though
more work remains to be done, including reauthorizing the
Small Business Administration, President Bush and
Congressional Republicans have made good on each of those
commitments. They have:
- Reduced taxes on 25 million small business owners and
entrepreneurs. Much of the tax relief came from
reductions in individual income tax rates. Ninety percent
of businesses pay income taxes at individual rates, not
corporate rates. This includes hundreds of thousands of
successful small business owners and entrepreneurs who
pay taxes in the top tax rates and whose taxes would
increase considerably under John Kerry's economic
plan.
- Lowered the tax burden on investment in new equipment
by quadrupling the limit on small business expensing from
$25,000 to $100,000 and allowing additional first-year
depreciation of that equipment.
- Phased-out the death tax that punishes family-owned
small businesses and family farms.
- Increased federal contracts to small businesses. In
2003, small businesses received the largest percentage
ever of all federal contracts. In addition, President
Bush developed a strategy to reverse the trend toward
bundling of contracts, a practice that has denied small
businesses the ability to compete for billions of
procurement dollars.
- Reduced paperwork. For example, 22.4 million small
business taxpayers now have fewer lines to fill out on
tax forms, freeing up an estimated 9.5 million hours
previously used for paperwork every year.
- Enacted Health Savings Accounts, which allow
individuals to save and pay for their health care
tax-free. Combined with a catastrophic health plan, they
are an easier and less costly way for small businesses to
provide health insurance for their employees.
- Enacted common sense liability protections in the
Terrorism Risk Insurance and SAFETY Acts.
- Negotiated agreements to reduce trade barriers and
expand access to foreign markets.
An area in special need of more work is liability reform.
Frivolous lawsuits put more money in the pockets of trial
lawyers and leave businesses with less money to create jobs.
They raise health care costs on small businesses, often
preventing them from offering health insurance to their
employees. We support efforts by President Bush,
Congressional Republicans, and Republican governors to curb
the burden of frivolous lawsuits. We recognize that the
Democrats' nominees, one of whom made his fortune as a trial
lawyer, are beholden to the interests of the trial lawyer
lobby and offer no hope for reform of this badly broken
system.
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
Health Savings Accounts allow people to own and control
their health care. They are an important step toward
creating a system of consumer-driven health care that puts
patients and doctors at the center of decision-making
&endash; not government bureaucrats. When consumers make
decisions about health care, individuals control their
health care dollars and health care decisions. Health
Savings Accounts allow people to save, earn interest, and
spend tax free on their health care needs. HSAs are combined
with a lowpremium, high-deductible health insurance plan to
offer flexible, affordable insurance options for small
businesses and individuals. Health Savings Accounts are now
available to all Americans thanks to the efforts of
President Bush and the Republican Congress. The next step,
which our Party endorses, is to extend tax deductibility to
the insurance premiums associated with HSAs. We also support
efforts to expand the use of Health Savings Accounts to help
control health care costs and give individuals more power in
making important medical decisions.
Private Property Rights
The core of ownership in America has always been ownership
of private property that a citizen can call his or her own.
Republicans respect this tradition. For reasons both
Constitutional and environmental, therefore, President Bush
and the Republican Congress will safeguard private property
rights by enforcing the Takings Clause of the Fifth
Amendment and by providing just compensation whenever
private property is needed to achieve a compelling public
purpose. We oppose efforts to diminish the rights of private
citizens to the land they own.
BUILDING AN INNOVATIVE, GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE ECONOMY
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"By leading the world when it comes to innovation and
change, we'll make America a hopeful place for those who
want to work, and those who want to dream, and those who
want to start their own business."
-- President George W. Bush
America's economy is the strongest in the world, and it
is getting stronger thanks to lower taxes, fewer burdensome
regulations, and a focus on encouraging investment. Our goal
is to make sure America remains the strongest economy in a
dynamic world and to make it possible for every American who
wants a job to find one. We must ensure that workers are
equipped with the education and training to succeed in the
best jobs of the 21st century, and we must encourage the
strong spirit of innovation that has put America at the
forefront of new technology industries. Future prosperity
demands that we have affordable, cleaner, more independent
energy supplies and affordable, high-quality health care. We
must maintain our commitment to free and fair trade, lower
taxes, limited regulation, and a limited, efficient
government that keeps up with the new realities of a
changing world. By keeping the costs of running a business
low and ensuring that our workers have the skills to compete
in a dynamic global economy, President Bush and the
Republican Congress will continue to ensure that America is
the best nation in the world in which to create jobs.
Lower Taxes and Economic Growth
In 2001, President Bush and the Republican Congress worked
together to pass the most sweeping tax relief in a
generation. By letting families, workers, and small business
owners keep more of the money they earn, they helped bring
America from recession to a steadily expanding economy.
Despite enduring the after-effects of the stock market's
irrational exuberance in the late 1990s, terrorist attacks
on our nation, and corporate scandals that bubbled to the
surface after years of inattention, the U.S. economy has now
grown for 33 straight months. And unlike four years ago,
there are no signs of an end to the current economic
growth.
The proof is in the numbers, and the numbers prove our
economy is strong and growing stronger.
- Over the past year, gross domestic product (GDP) grew
at one of the fastest rates in two decades.
- Without the President's tax relief, real GDP would
have been more than 3 percent lower and 2 million fewer
Americans would have been working at the end of last
year.
- Since last August, 1.5 million new jobs have been
created.
- The unemployment rate has fallen from 6.3 to 5.5
percent, which is below the average of the 1970s, 1980s,
and 1990s.
- Employment over the last year is up in 46 of the 50
states, and the unemployment rate is down in 49 of the 50
states. In addition to the official figures, household
surveys show that hundreds of thousands of new jobs have
been created, unreported, through selfemployment and by
small businesses.
- Real after-tax incomes are up by 9.6 percent since
December 2000.
- Homeownership rates are at record levels &endash;
seven out of ten American families own their own home
today.
- Consumer confidence is up from the levels seen at
this time last year.
- Inflation remains low by historical standards, as do
mortgage rates.
We know what brought us this success &endash; the hard
work of the American people and the Republican commitment to
low taxes. Now we must keep our economy on the right path by
preventing taxes on families from going up next year, making
the tax relief of the last four years permanent, and
reforming the tax code to make it simpler, fairer, and more
growth-oriented.
Tax Reform
In 2000 we rightly declared: "The federal tax code is
dysfunctional. It penalizes hard work, marriage, thrift, and
success &endash; the very factors that are the foundations
for lasting prosperity." As noted earlier, from reducing
marginal income tax rates to phasing out the death tax,
President Bush and the Republican Congress have made great
strides in addressing each of these problems. However, it is
equally obvious that much more remains to be done to reform
the federal tax code. Instead of being simple, the current
tax system is needlessly complex, making it susceptible to
abusive tax avoidance schemes. Instead of being efficient,
it punishes hard work, discourages savings and investment,
and hinders the international competitiveness of U.S. firms.
Instead of being fair, it is out of line with our basic
values and undermines our sense of fairness. Instead of
being predictable, it is highly unpredictable and uncertain.
Tax reform is necessary to achieve the simplicity,
efficiency, fairness, and predictability that the American
people deserve, and to give all Americans the freedom to
determine their own spending priorities.
In particular, we must:
- Make the tax relief of 2001 and 2003 permanent. The
various expiring tax relief provisions, ranging from 2005
to 2011, make the tax code confusing for everybody and
limits the ability of workers, families, and businesses
to plan for the future with confidence. Nowhere is this
more apparent than with the death tax, which is reduced
now, disappears in 2010, and then comes fully back to
life in 2011.
- Build on efforts to develop a tax code that does not
punish taxpayers for saving.
- Replace the tax code with a system that is simpler,
provides more freedom to our citizens, is pro-growth,
boosts the economy, and encourages savings and
investment. A code that provides several definitions of a
child is a code that needs to be reformed.
We support legislation requiring a super-majority vote in
both houses of Congress to raise taxes. We will prohibit
retroactive taxation and will not tolerate attempts by
federal judges to impose taxes. We oppose all attempts by
the United Nations to impose a global tax and reject any
claims of authority by United Nations to do so. Because of
the vital role of religious and fraternal benevolent
societies in fostering charity and patriotism, they should
not be subject to taxation.
Alternative Minimum Tax
The alternative minimum tax (AMT) represents a second tax
system for individuals. Its stated goal is to insure that
high-income taxpayers pay some amount of income tax. But due
to the lack of indexing, the broad base and reach of the
current AMT will make it apply increasingly to middle-income
taxpayers. Millions of additional taxpayers must complete
AMT forms just to determine that they are not subject to the
tax. As we look at the broader issue of tax reform, we call
upon Congress to address this increasingly unfair second tax
system on hardworking Americans.
Fiscal Discipline and Government Reform
To make sure the private sector has the capital it needs to
invest, grow the economy, and expand prosperity, our leaders
must make sure that the growth of the federal government
remains in check. The challenges America has faced over the
last four years have created an unwelcome but manageable
budget deficit. These deficits are due to a number of
factors: the stock market downturn that began in 2000 and
the subsequent recession that President Bush inherited when
he took office; the terrorist attacks on America and the
necessary spending for homeland security and the War on
Terror those attacks precipitated; and the crisis in
confidence produced by corporate scandals that were years in
the making.
It is important to view the size of the deficit in relation
to the size of the nation's economy. By that measure,
today's deficit, although unwelcome, is well within
historical ranges. A deficit that is 3.8 percent of GDP, as
is now projected for this year, would be smaller than the
deficits in nine of the last 25 years, and far below the
peak deficit figure of 6 percent of GDP reached in 1983.
This deficit is also in line with what other industrialized
nations are facing today. The U.S. deficit matches the
average deficit within the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, and is below the levels of
France, Germany, and Japan.
Much more importantly, because the President and Congress
enacted pro-growth economic policies, the deficit is headed
strongly in the right direction. Next year's projected
deficit, at 2.7 percent of GDP, would be smaller than those
in 14 of the last 25 years. As Republicans in Congress work
with the President to restrain spending and strengthen
economic growth, the federal deficit will fall to 1.5
percent of the nation's economic output in 2009 &endash;
well below the 2.2 percent average of the last 40 years.
The events that brought us into deficit are not completely
behind us. The War on Terror goes on. The recession has
passed, but some industries and workers are still feeling
its effects. Republicans are committed to winning the War on
Terror and will continue to implement policies that promote
jobs, investment, and growth in every region of the country
and every sector of our economy.
Let us be clear: If government is to meet the most pressing
needs of our time and still maintain fiscal discipline,
government leaders must set priorities and stick with them.
President Bush has shown genuine leadership in doing just
that. Time and again, he has made difficult decisions and
followed through with clear determination. He has made it
plain that his top budgetary priority is to protect America
and win the War on Terror. He also remains committed to the
education reforms he spearheaded in 2001. All discretionary
spending must be kept in check and taxes must remain low to
stimulate economic growth.
We endorse the President's pro-growth economic policies and
his disciplined approach to spending taxpayers' dollars. And
we applaud the efforts of President Bush and Republicans in
Congress to meet our nation's priorities and cut the deficit
by more than half within five years.
PAYGO
Tax cuts and spending are not the same. They do not have the
same effect on the economy or on the federal budget. Tax
cuts allow American workers, families, business owners, and
investors to keep more of their own money. New spending
requires the government to take control of a bigger slice of
the economy. We recognize that the problem is not that the
American people are taxed too little but that the federal
government spends too much. To ensure that the federal
government respects the burdens on taxpayers and spends only
as much as is necessary to accomplish our common goals, we
support extending the pay-as-you-go requirement for
mandatory spending only.
Limiting Spending Growth
Spending limits will help Congress restrain the growth of
government. We support a cap on discretionary spending that
will limit the growth of overall spending while ensuring
that priorities such as our nation's security will continue
to be met. We applaud President Bush for submitting a budget
for 2005 that provides significant increases in funding to
win the War on Terror and protect the homeland, while
limiting the growth in all other non-security related
discretionary spending to less than one percent.
Line-Item Veto
To further the goal of respecting taxpayers' dollars and
restraining spending, we endorse the creation of a line-item
veto, which the President could use consistent with the
Constitution to reject new appropriations, new mandatory
spending, or limited grants of tax benefits (to 100 or fewer
beneficiaries) whenever he determines the spending or tax
benefits are not essential priorities. Under this approach,
all savings from the line-item veto would be used for
deficit reduction, and could not be applied to other
spending. Governors across the nation already have and use
this tool to reduce unnecessary spending. The President
should have the same option.
Sunset Commission
. Government programs are designed with specific purposes,
and they ought to be assessed to determine whether they are
meeting their goals. We endorse creating a commission to
evaluate discretionary spending on federal agencies and
programs to ensure that taxpayer funds are being used for
the best, most efficient purposes. Such a commission would
determine whether certain programs are duplicative, wasteful
or inefficient, outdated or irrelevant, or failed. It would
recommend to Congress programs that could be terminated,
moved, or restructured to make the government more
efficient.
Management Agenda
New government programs are frequently created with little
review of programs that already exist to address the same
perceived problem. Over time, numerous programs with
overlapping missions and competing agendas grow up alongside
one another &endash; wasting money and baffling citizens. We
support President Bush's vision for government reform, which
is guided by three principles. Government should be:
citizen-centered, not bureaucracy-centered;
results-oriented; and market-based, actively promoting
rather than stifling innovation through competition. The
President's management agenda is an effective tool for
making sure government is active but limited, focusing on
results and obtaining them efficiently.
Corporate Accountability
The Republican Party respects and appreciates the private
sector as the primary creator of jobs, economic growth,
opportunity, and prosperity in our society. The private
sector functions most effectively when laws are transparent
and people respect them &endash; this includes people in
positions of power. When corporate leaders break the law,
they should be punished.
After fraudulent corporate practices rooted in the
irrational exuberance of the late 1990s began to surface in
the closing months of 2001, President Bush worked with the
Congress to take decisive action to restore honesty and
integrity to America's corporate boardrooms. In July 2002,
President Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the most
farreaching reform of American business practices since the
1940s. Under this new law, CEOs and Chief Financial Officers
are required to personally vouch for the truth and fairness
of their companies' disclosures; for the first time, an
independent board has been established to oversee the
accounting profession; investigators have been given new
tools to root out corporate fraud; and enhanced penalties
are ensuring that dishonest corporate officials do hard
time.
We applaud President Bush for vigorously enforcing the law
to deter and punish further corporate abuses. He established
an interagency Corporate Fraud Task Force to investigate and
prosecute financial crimes; to recover the proceeds of those
crimes; and to hold corporate criminals to account. Since
the Task Force was established two years ago, over 700
violators have been charged and over 300 convictions or
guilty pleas secured, including more than 25 former CEOs.
More than $1 billion in forfeited funds has also been
recovered from corporate wrongdoers for return to defrauded
creditors and investors. Separately, the enforcement budget
of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has more
than doubled, and the SEC has issued new rules to ban
latetrading and other fraudulent practices engaged in by
certain mutual funds.
Thanks to swift and decisive action by President Bush and
the Congress, Americans can trust that corporate executives
who operate outside the law will be prosecuted.
Enforcing Trade Agreements and Opening New
Markets
International trade has become the world's most powerful
economic force, and Americans are seeing great benefits from
free and fair trade. Exports accounted for about 25 percent
of the economic growth in the 1990s and supported about 12
million jobs. An additional 6 million jobs are made possible
by companies based in foreign countries investing here in
the United States. Consumers have benefited &endash; recent
trade agreements save the average family of four $2000 per
year by lowering regulatory barriers, eliminating tariffs,
and providing more consumer choices.
Free trade must be fair trade that advances America's
economic goals and protects American jobs. To achieve this
goal, we must act globally, regionally, and bilaterally to
negotiate new trade agreements and enforce existing trade
commitments. We must be at the table when trade agreements
are negotiated, make the interests of American workers and
farmers paramount, and ensure that the drive to open new
markets is successful. We reject moves toward economic
isolationism. America is the best place in the world to do
business, and our workers and products are the best in the
world. On a level playing field we can outmatch any other
nation. We applaud the President's actions to open foreign
markets to American manufacturing products, agricultural
goods, services, and intellectual property, while ensuring
enforcement of trade agreements so that other nations live
up to their promises.
In 2000 we resolved to renew Trade Promotion Authority so
the President could more easily negotiate trade agreements.
In 2002 President Bush and Republicans in Congress did
exactly that. After lapsing for eight years, the law now
allows President Bush to work with other countries to reduce
barriers to our products and services. And he is using the
new authority:
- The Bush Administration has negotiated trade
agreements with 12 countries.
- They have made progress on agreements with another 10
countries.
- These free trade partners represent $2.5 trillion in
purchasing power &endash; the equivalent of America's
third-largest export market.
- The agreements include high levels of protection and
strong enforcement measures for intellectual
property.
- The Administration has also made significant progress
in negotiating multi-lateral trade agreements, having
just last month revived World Trade Organization (WTO)
negotiations for the final phase of the Doha round.
- The revival of these negotiations opens the door to
lower tariffs on consumer and industrial goods,
reductions in tariffs and trade-distorting export
subsidies on agricultural products, and market access and
lower regulatory barriers for services.
The vitality of the U.S. trade agenda depends upon the
vigorous enforcement of U.S. trade laws against unfair
competition. We will not tolerate foreign practices, rules,
and subsidization that put our exports and manufacturers on
an unequal footing. It is not enough to secure signatures on
a piece of paper; our trading partners must follow through
on the promises they make.
As part of its trade enforcement efforts, the Bush
Administration has imposed more anti-dumping orders on
average each year than the previous Administration. The
United States was the first country in the world to impose a
safeguard action against Chinese textile and apparel imports
and to file a case against China in the WTO. China settled
that case, agreeing to repeal its subsidy of semiconductors
that was penalizing U.S. manufacturers. Also this year,
through bilateral consultations with China, the United
States resolved seven other potential trade disputes over
high technology products, agriculture, and intellectual
property protection.
We strongly endorse the Bush Administration's unprecedented
effort to persuade and encourage China to desist in its
policy of manipulating its currency to give Chinese
manufacturers an artificial advantage in global markets.
Reforming the Litigation System
America's litigation system is broken. Junk and frivolous
lawsuits are driving up the cost of doing business in
America by forcing companies to pay excessive legal expenses
to fight off or settle often baseless lawsuits. Those costs
are being paid by small business owners, manufacturers,
their employees, and consumers. A typical small business
with $10 million in annual revenue pays about $150,000 a
year in tort liability costs. That is money that could be
used to invest and hire new employees. Inefficiency and
waste in the legal system is costing the average American
family of four $1,800 every year, equivalent to an extra 3
percent tax on wages. And the bulk of jury awards to
plaintiffs don't even go to the people who deserve it.
Injured persons on average collect less than 50 cents of
every dollar that the legal system costs. Trial lawyers get
rich from the misfortune of others. If small business is
America's economic engine, trial lawyers are the brakes:
They cost hundreds of thousands of good jobs, drive honest
employers out of business, deprive women of critical medical
care &endash; then skip out with fat wallets and nary a
thought for the economic havoc and human misery they leave
in their wake. We praise President Bush and Republicans in
Congress for their efforts to reform the legal system by
passing meaningful class action reform, asbestos reform, and
medical liability reform. And we call to account Senate
Democrats and the powerful trial lawyer lobby, who have
shown no shame in utilizing obstructionist tactics to thwart
the efforts of majorities in Congress to provide meaningful
relief to all Americans. The Republican Party reaffirms its
support for meaningful reform of the legal system, and will
continue its fight to guarantee the rights of all plaintiffs
to swift and speedy justice.
Transportation
A safe and efficient transportation system is essential to
keeping people and goods moving and cities and communities
prosperous. Congestion and delay not only waste our time as
individuals, they also burden businesses and our entire
economy with inefficiency and higher costs. Republicans
strongly support a comprehensive transportation policy
agenda that enhances safety, reduces congestion, modernizes
infrastructure, and promotes economic growth.
Our national railroad network is a crucial component of our
public transportation system. Railroads helped build our
country, and our national passenger railroad network plays a
key role in transportation and economic growth. Republicans
support, where economically viable, the development of a
high-speed passenger railroad system as an instrument of
economic development and enhanced mobility.
Republicans support a healthy intercity passenger rail
system. Amtrak provides a valuable service to passengers,
especially in the Northeast corridor. But we recognize that
the goal of establishing a national passenger rail system
with modest federal support has failed to materialize.
Clearly the financial problems plaguing Amtrak cannot be
solved simply by continued infusions of taxpayer dollars.
Fundamental reforms should be enacted to transition Amtrak
into operational self-sufficiency.
Ensuring an Affordable, Reliable, More Independent Energy
Supply
A stable, affordable, more independent energy supply is
vital to fueling America's economic growth, increasing
prosperity, helping families afford prices at the pump, and
making America more secure. President Bush and Republicans
in Congress recognize the need for a balanced energy policy
that increases both energy production and conservation. We
need a comprehensive energy policy so that we will no longer
lurch from one energy crisis to the next. Recent electricity
blackouts, the California energy crisis, natural gas and oil
price spikes, and high gasoline prices remind us that only a
comprehensive energy policy will produce energy stability
for America's families and businesses.
As one of his first acts in office, President Bush released
the National Energy Policy (NEP) report, a comprehensive
plan to reduce America's dependence on foreign sources of
energy by increasing domestic energy production and
supporting conservation and alternative and renewable
energy. The President's proposal would make America more
energy independent while creating jobs and promoting
economic growth. It includes over 100 recommendations,
nearly half of which addressed renewable energy, energy
efficiency, and conservation. President Bush has implemented
nearly every nonlegislative recommendation outlined in the
NEP report. Republicans in the House and Senate have stood
solidly with the President. We endorse the President's
policy, appreciate the hard work of Congressional
Republicans in the face of intractable partisan opposition,
and urge final passage of a bill to secure America's energy
future.
- Republicans support developing new technologies for
more efficient generation and use of power. New
technologies will allow us to create new job-producing
industries and save jobs in industries that have long
been staples of America's economy. For instance, working
with Congressional Republicans, the President has already
committed $2 billion over 10 years for clean coal
research and development &endash; which helps keep
America's coal industry strong and reduces the emissions
associated with coal use. As part of that commitment, we
support FutureGen, an international, public-private
initiative to build the world's first integrated
sequestration and hydrogen research power plant that
would burn coal more cleanly. President Bush's Clear
Skies Initiative would create a $50 billion private
market to deploy these clean coal technologies.
- The Republican Party supports research and investment
designed to realize the enormous benefits of a hydrogen
economy and put the United States on the cutting edge of
energy technology. The FreedomCar Partnership and
Hydrogen Fuel Initiative include $1.7 billion over five
years to begin building hydrogen cars and the
infrastructure to support them.
- Using the most sophisticated technologies, we can
explore and develop oil resources here at home with
minimal environmental impact. Our Party continues to
support energy development in the coastal plain of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which, according
to the U.S. Geological Survey, holds as much as 16
billion barrels of oil &endash; enough to replace oil
imports from Saudi Arabia for nearly 20 years. The
drilling footprint can be confined to just 2,000 acres
(the entire refuge contains 19 million acres), about the
size of Washington's Dulles Airport, on ice roads that
melt away in the summer, leaving little trace of human
intervention. We have already wasted precious time. If
the previous Administration had not vetoed the ANWR
proposal passed by the Republican Congress in 1995, at
this moment ANWR would be producing up to one million
barrels of oil a day.
- Republicans strongly support removing unnecessary
barriers to domestic natural gas production and expanding
environmentally sound production in new areas, such as
Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. Increasing supply,
including the construction of a new natural gas pipeline
from Alaska to the lower 48, will bring needed relief to
consumers and make America's businesses more competitive
in the global marketplace.
- Last summer, the largest blackout in North American
history affected 8 states, leaving more than 50 million
Americans without power. Republicans support measures to
modernize the nation's electricity grid to prevent future
blackouts and provide American consumers and businesses
with more affordable, reliable power. We will work to
unleash innovation so entrepreneurs can develop
technologies for a more advanced and robust transmission
system that meets our growing energy demands. We also
support the establishment of mandatory, enforceable
reliability rules for electric utilities to reduce the
likelihood of future blackouts.
- Republicans will continue to support renewable energy
through extension of the production tax credit for wind
and biomass, as well as efforts to expand the use of
biodiesel and ethanol, which can reduce America's
dependence on foreign oil while increasing revenues to
farmers.
- Nuclear power provides America with affordable,
emissions-free energy. We believe nuclear power can help
reduce our dependence on foreign energy and play an
invaluable role in addressing global climate change.
President Bush supports construction of new nuclear power
plants through the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative, and
continues to move forward on creating an environmentally
sound nuclear waste repository.
Education: No Child Left Behind
Public education, access for every child to an excellent
education, is a foundation of a free, civil society. The
children who enter schools today will leave as young adults,
full of dreams for the future. They will soon become the
scientists and researchers who make great discoveries, the
engineers and mathematicians who build our communities, the
doctors and nurses who heal and comfort the sick, the
teachers who will educate the next generation, the leaders
who transform government, the poets, artists, and writers
who entertain and inspire. Every child deserves a first-rate
education, because every child holds infinite potential, and
we should give them every opportunity to reach it.
We believe there is an inseparable link between a vibrant
economy and a highquality education system. It takes a
vibrant economy to provide the tax base necessary to fund a
high-quality education system. Equally, it takes a quality
education system to provide the highly skilled labor force
necessary to meet the demands of a growing, vibrant
economy.
Strong schools will also produce a workforce with the skills
to compete in the 21st century economy. We must have
citizens capable of conceiving the next generation of new
technologies and innovations, mastering the art of analyzing
problems and crafting their solutions. Education is the key
to prosperity and fulfillment &endash; the foundation on
which all other success is built.
On just his fourth day in office, President Bush presented
the No Child Left Behind initiative to Congress. Less than a
year later, he secured an overwhelming bipartisan majority
to pass the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. It was the
most significant overhaul of federal education policy since
1965. And it became a promise kept to parents, students,
teachers, and every American. The law is based on four
fundamental pillars:
- Ensuring stronger accountability for student
achievement, for all children
- Encouraging education methods that work
- Providing flexibility and control to states and local
communities
- Giving parents more information about the quality of
their children's schools and offering them choices and
resources for their children's education
Results are now measured on the basis of student
achievement rather than simply dollars spent. Students are
benefiting from education reforms that set high academic
standards, encourage strong parental involvement, recognize
the role of excellent teachers, foster safe and orderly
classrooms, and establish a commitment to teaching the
basics of reading and math.
With this success, Republicans have transformed the debate
on education. We are the Party parents can trust to improve
schools and provide opportunity for all children, in every
neighborhood, regardless of background or income. We are the
party willing to embrace new ideas and put them to the test.
Americans agree that the status quo in education is no
longer acceptable. We have challenged low expectations and
poor achievement, and we are seeing results.
Now is the time to extend the progress we've made. The No
Child Left Behind Act is already showing gains in elementary
school, as student achievement scores for fourth- and
eighth-graders have increased in classrooms across America.
Our next mission is to take the reforms that we know are
working in elementary schools and apply them up and down the
education ladder &endash; starting in early childhood
education, so that children enter school ready to learn, and
finishing in high school, so that every young adult who
graduates has the skills he or she needs to succeed in the
21st century economy. For too long, the value of a high
school diploma has declined as students leave school without
even basic skills like reading and math, let alone the
advanced math and science skills the modern workforce
demands. We pledge to bring real reform to high schools.
Thanks to President Bush's vision and the success of the No
Child Left Behind Act, we have a track record worthy of
Americans' trust.
Local Control
We recognize that under the American Constitutional system,
education is a state, local, and family responsibility, not
a federal obligation. Since over 90 percent of public school
funding is state and local, not federal, it is obvious that
state and local governments must assume most of the
responsibility to improve the schools, and the role of the
federal government must be limited as we return control to
parents, teachers, and local school boards.
Historic Levels of Funding
President Bush and Congressional Republicans have provided
the largest increase in federal education funding in history
and the highest percentage gain since the 1960s. Support for
elementary and secondary education has had the largest
increase in any single Presidential term since the 1960s
&endash; an increase of nearly 50 percent since 2001. The
President and Congress are particularly focused on programs
for America's neediest students, including minorities and
children with special needs. With this increased funding
comes a new focus on achievement and results.
High Standards and Accountability
The President and Republicans in Congress recognize that
states and local communities are most directly responsible
for the quality of education in their schools. That is why
the No Child Left Behind Act stipulates that the states, not
the federal government, develop an accountability plan that
will work best for them. Since President Bush signed NCLB
into law, all states have developed an accountability plan
of assessments, graduation rates, and other key indicators
of student achievement for all individual students and
groups of students. Under the No Child Left Behind Act,
every child counts. No child will be hidden in a maze of
numbers. If some children are struggling while others
succeed, we will praise success and deliver help to students
who need it.
Reading
Our Party believes, as does the President, that reading is
the new civil right. Every child must be able to read by the
end of the third grade. The President and Congressional
Republicans have taken important steps to help every student
achieve that goal. The Reading First initiative brings
scientifically based reading instruction, including phonics,
to children in the early grades. Over $1.4 billion in
funding for reading programs provides training for teachers
and materials for children. In addition, since the passage
of the No Child Left Behind Act, states have received
additional funds for early childhood reading efforts.
Options for Parents
The Republican Party strongly supports school choice,
because choice creates competition and competition puts the
focus on quality. President Bush, Republican governors, and
members of Congress have worked to expand parental choice
and encourage competition by providing parents with
information on their child's school, increasing the number
of charter schools, and expanding education savings accounts
for use from kindergarten through college.
Under NCLB, states and school districts publish report cards
showing how well students are achieving so communities and
parents can know how well their schools are doing. Parents
of children in schools identified as needing improvement can
choose another public school or get tutoring or other help
for their child. President Bush and the Republican Congress
enacted the D.C. School Choice initiative &endash; the first
federally funded school choice demonstration program. We
commend the President and Congress for making DC's
schoolchildren the most important special interest in
education improvement. And we support state efforts to
expand school choice, as well as the President's call to
provide funding for new and existing charter schools,
including assistance for school facilities. We believe that
competition between schools is an effective option to
improve the educational benefits for our children. The
Republican Party supports the efforts of parents who choose
faith-based and other nonpublic school options for their
children.
High School Education
We are beginning to see success as a result of the No Child
Left Behind Act at the elementary level, and now we must
improve our high schools so that every graduate is prepared
for the rigors of college, for the best jobs of the 21st
century economy, or for military service. President Bush has
proposed a number of initiatives to improve math and science
education, help striving readers, and raise standards for
high schools.
Supporting Teachers
Research confirms what every parent knows to be true through
commonsense and experience &endash; a good teacher makes all
the difference in a child's education. The No Child Left
Behind Act set the goal of having a highly qualified teacher
in every classroom by the 2005-2006 school year. States have
been provided flexibility and resources to make sure
teachers have the skills and tools to be successful with all
children. These needed reforms are backed by historic levels
of funding for teacher quality initiatives and support for
teachers, including training, recruitment incentives, loan
forgiveness, and tax relief.
We must also work to reduce the barriers that are keeping
qualified professionals from entering the classroom by
expanding alternative pathways to teacher certification
&endash; programs like Troops to Teachers, which helps
former military personnel become classroom teachers; and
Transition to Teaching, which provides training for people
who want to become teachers and encourages states to develop
and expand alternative routes to teacher licensure and
certification.
Every teacher and every student deserves a safe classroom in
which to work and learn. The No Child Left Behind Act
ensures that teachers and other school professionals can
undertake reasonable actions to maintain order and
discipline in the classroom without the fear of litigation.
The law provides civil immunity in any state court and
limits the financial liability of teachers, instructors,
principals, administrators, and other education
professionals for actions taken to maintain discipline,
order, or control in the school or classroom.
Head Start and Early Childhood Education
We support the President's "Good Start, Grow Smart"
initiative, which strengthens Head Start by increasing
accountability in the program so that students start
kindergarten with the early skills they need. It also
includes the Early Reading First initiative, designed to
improve existing early education programs to prepare young
children to succeed in school, especially those from
low-income families. States should be able to coordinate
preschool programs with Head Start programs in exchange for
meeting certain accountability requirements.
Community Colleges
Community colleges play a vital role in not only cultivating
citizens for the 21st century, but also equipping them with
the essential skills and training needed for jobs in the new
economy. Because they are so adaptable and accessible,
community colleges are increasingly critical providers of
job training, both for degree-seekers and for workers
seeking to retool, refine, and broaden their skills. We
support the President's High- Growth Job Training
Initiative, which has provided seed money to fund job
training partnerships between community colleges and local
high-growth industries.
Higher Education Affordability
Republicans are working to ensure that college is affordable
and accessible for America's low- and middle-income families
through increased funding of grants, lowinterest student
loans, and tax breaks for working families. As a result of
Republican leadership, total student aid for higher
education has increased to a historic $73 billion proposed
for 2005. Next year, almost 10 million students and parents
will receive one or more grants, loans, or work-study
awards.
The President has requested record levels of Pell Grant
funding. These grants will help an estimated 5.3 million
low-income students pay for higher education &endash; one
million more students than when President Bush and Vice
President Cheney came to office. Under a new Enhanced Pell
Grant proposal, low-income students who take a rigorous high
school curriculum &endash; the kind of curriculum that will
best prepare them for success in college &endash; will be
eligible to receive an additional $1,000 per year.
To ensure that America remains the world leader in the
innovation economy &endash; and to ensure that America's
graduates have the training they need to compete for the
best jobs of the 21st century &endash; President Bush
proposes to expand opportunities for math and science
education in colleges and universities. Needy students
studying math and science will be eligible to receive
additional college aid.
Republicans have made Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions
(HSIs) a priority. For more than a century, HBCUs and HSIs
have played a vital role in providing opportunities for
excellence in higher education to millions of African
American and Hispanic students. Today, their mission
continues, and it deserves our support. We applaud President
Bush for fulfilling his pledge to increase funding for HBCUs
and HSIs by 30 percent since 2001.
Millions of Americans suffer from problem or pathological
gambling that can destroy families. We support legislation
prohibiting gambling over the Internet or in student
athletics by student athletes who are participating in
competitive sports. Training Our 21st Century Workforce
As the dynamic global economy forces many workers to
consider changing fields or adding new skills, the President
and Republican Congress want to make training for new jobs
easier to come by and more flexible in providing
individualized assistance. Ensuring that workers have the
tools they need to succeed in the 21st Century Economy is a
critical step in helping Americans be self-sufficient and
successful. It is also critical to maintaining our position
as the most productive and strongest economy in the
world.
We support effective and enhanced job training programs that
offer states additional flexibility and individuals more
choice to design their own workforce training programs. The
President's Personal Reemployment Accounts would provide
unemployed workers flexible support and incentives in
finding a job. And President Bush and Congressional
Republicans are also providing unprecedented assistance for
workers adversely affected by foreign trade &endash;
including additional training, income support, and health
care assistance.
With English as our nation's common language, people from
every corner of the world have come together to build this
great nation. English empowers. For newcomers, it is the
fastest route to mainstream American life, better paying
jobs, and owning a piece of the American Dream. Furthermore,
fluency in English should be the goal of bilingual
education. At the same time, mastery of other languages is
important for America's competitiveness in the world market.
We advocate foreign language training in our schools and
fostering respect for other languages and cultures
throughout society.
Protecting the Rights of Workers
We affirm the time-honored right of individuals to
voluntarily participate in labor organizations and to
bargain collectively. We also believe that no American
should be coerced into an association they do not wish to
join. And no one should be kept out of a job for which they
are qualified simply because they choose to remain
independent of labor unions. We therefore support the right
of states to enact Right-to-Work laws.
Republicans respect the enormous sacrifices and commitment
of the workers, including building tradesmen, who responded
to the attacks of September 11th. Thanks to their skill,
courage, and patriotism, the very dangerous work at the
World Trade Center and Pentagon was done remarkably quickly
and without a single fatality. We will always remember and
honor the efforts of the rescue and recovery workers who
dedicated countless hours to helping America recover.
All American workers deserve workplaces that are safe,
healthy, and fair. The President and Republican Congress
have supported efforts to improve workplace safety without
burdening businesses with costly and unnecessary
regulations. And these efforts are showing results &endash;
overall workplace fatalities and injuries are at record low
levels.
American workers deserve fair wages for hours spent working
overtime. We are proud of the fact that 1.3 million
additional workers now have guaranteed overtime protections
as a result of Republican efforts to modernize labor laws
left untouched since 1949. For the first time ever, the
regulations explicitly guarantee overtime protection to blue
collar workers, police, firefighters, EMTs, factory workers,
construction workers, and licensed practical nurses, among
others. With clearly defined overtime rules that recognize
the realities of the modern workforce, employees and
employers will have a greater understanding of their rights
and responsibilities.
Workers who pay dues through their workplace deserve to know
how their dues are being used &endash; especially when the
money is being used to support political activity.
Republicans have enhanced financial disclosure requirements
for political campaigns, corporations, and pension funds in
order to bring about more transparency and accountability in
the political system. And the Bush Administration improved
union financial disclosure forms to offer union members more
information about how their dues money is spent. We
encourage management and unions to find common ground
thereby ensuring economic viability for both.
Men and women who retire after decades spent in the
workforce are entitled to the pensions they and their
employers have contributed to throughout their careers. As
part of the 2001 economic growth and tax relief bill,
workers' pension payments are now calculated on the basis of
their best three years of earnings rather than their last
three. This protects workers whose earnings decline with
their age. In addition, criminal prosecutions against
employers and plan trustees who abuse pension and health
plans have increased by more than 50 percent since 2001.
More than $3 billion has been secured through court
judgments, settlements, and fines covering 150 million
workers and their dependents by holding those who manage
benefit plans accountable for their legal obligations to
protect plan participants. Thanks to Republican efforts to
enforce the law, the word is getting out that benefits
managers should invest and manage employees' retirement
funds as carefully as they would handle their own.
Republicans recognize the historical federal health care
promise made to coal industry retirees. The Party will seek
to ensure that health care needs of "orphan retirees" in the
coal industry will be covered and will seek to ensure the
continuation of those benefits.
True Solutions for Affordable, High-Quality Health
Care
The cost of providing health care for employees is a major
burden for American businesses. Health insurance costs for
employers have been rising every year since 1996, causing
businesses to hire fewer new employees and too many families
to go without insurance. Studies show that 60 percent of
uninsured Americans either work for a small business or are
dependent upon someone who does. The way to alleviate that
burden is to bring down the cost of health care in America.
Shifting the cost-burden onto the federal or state
governments &endash; costs that will ultimately be borne by
the taxpayers &endash; is not an effective solution to the
problem. We must attack the root causes of high health care
costs by: aiding small businesses in offering health care to
their employees; empowering the self-employed through access
to affordable coverage; putting patients and doctors in
charge of medical decisions; reducing junk lawsuits and
limiting punitive damage awards that raise the cost of
health care; and seizing the cost-saving and
quality-enhancing potential of emerging health technologies.
It is also important that we reaffirm our Party's firm
rejection of any measure aimed at making health care a
government-run enterprise.
Association Health Plans (AHPs)
We support legislation to enable small employers to pool
together to offer health insurance options to their
employees. The legislation, already passed by the House,
gives small businesses the same purchasing power currently
enjoyed by large employers and labor unions. This will go a
long way toward providing health care coverage for America's
uninsured, 60 percent of whom are estimated to work for or
be dependent on someone who works for a small business.
Medical Liability Reform
The medical liability system is harming our medical delivery
system. Doctors are afraid to practice medicine. Frequent,
unwarranted, lawsuits force doctors out of certain specialty
areas and geographic regions. The most dangerous result of
this is the declining availability of emergency trauma care
and women's health services. In many cases, costs are so
prohibitive that many obstetrics/gynecology practices are
scaling back service or choosing not to practice altogether.
Junk lawsuits add at least $60 billion to health care costs
in America because doctors are forced to practice defensive
medicine, ordering extensive, unnecessary, and expensive
tests and procedures to keep trial lawyers at bay.
The President has proposed, and the Republican House of
Representatives has passed, reforms that would speed
compensation to injured patients, reduce health care costs,
and improve Americans' access to quality health care.
Shamefully driven by the powerful trial lawyer lobby,
Democrat Senators have repeatedly thwarted the efforts of
the Republican majority to deliver meaningful medical
liability reform. They have employed their obstructionist
tactics three times in the current Congress alone. The
Republican Party reaffirms its commitment to putting
patients and doctors ahead of trial lawyers. We will
continue to battle for litigation reforms that help keep
doctors in practice, adopt reasonable caps on non-economic
awards in medical malpractice suits, and ensure that
Americans have access to quality affordable health care.
Health Information Technology
Estimates indicate that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans
die each year from medical errors, while as much as $300
billion is spent each year on health care that does not help
patients &endash; unnecessary, inappropriate, inefficient,
or ineffective treatments. This is absolutely unacceptable.
High costs, medical errors, administrative inefficiencies,
and poor coordination are all closely connected to our
failure to use health information technology as an integral
part of medical care.
Republicans support President Bush's goal of ensuring that
most Americans have electronic health records within the
next 10 years. He has requested funding for demonstration
projects for broader adoption of health IT systems in
communities and states. Already, the use of health IT in the
Veterans Administration has shown improvements in the
quality of care and reductions in the cost. The
Administration is working with private sector innovators to
develop reliable, secure methods of storing personal medical
information that will broaden the benefits of health IT.
Privacy is paramount, and participation by patients will be
voluntary. These electronic health records will be designed
to share information among and between health care providers
only when authorized by a patient.
Advances at the nexus of science and technology raise
serious moral and legal questions. For example, although
medical conditions have been linked to certain genetic
markers, there is no certainty that many of these diseases
will actually develop. There is growing concern that
employers and insurance companies will use genetic
information to discriminate by denying jobs or insurance
coverage to individuals who have predictive genetic markers
for certain diseases. We support efforts to enact genetic
discrimination legislation that is fair, reasonable, and
consistent with existing laws to prevent discrimination.
In addition, we must take action to allow doctors and
hospitals to review best practices without fear of
litigation. By sharing information, health professionals can
determine ways to avoid errors and complications. These
efforts are blocked, however, because good-faith efforts to
improve quality and safety are targets for lawsuits based on
new information that is made public in the review process.
We support the work of the President and Republicans in
Congress on legislation to make it possible for health
professionals to work together more effectively to provide
the best possible care for all patients.
Investing in Science, Technology, and
Telecommunications
Republicans recognize that the role of government in the
21st century economy is to foster an environment in which
innovation can flourish. The Information Revolution is the
product of the creative efforts and hard work of men and
women in the private sector who have had the freedom to
innovate. At the same time, we recognize the magnitude and
pace of change require vigilance by government to make the
most of the opportunities, mitigate the possible downsides
of rapid technological advancement, and protect the
technology industry from modern day pirates at home and
abroad &endash; both those who violate copyrights and those
who loot by litigation. The technological innovation we have
experienced thus far is surely only the beginning of almost
unimaginable growth and change. We will seize this historic
opportunity.
Manufacturing
The United States remains the largest producer and exporter
of manufactured goods in the world, despite enduring
significant challenges during the economic downturn. The
U.S. needs a national minerals strategy to supply the
country with minerals and metals vital to national and
economic security and to the competitiveness of U.S.
manufacturing. The continued primacy of U.S. manufacturing
is due in large part to the Administration's manufacturing
initiative, which represents the first time in modern
history that an Administration has made U.S. manufacturing a
top priority. We support the Administration's efforts in
this regard as a recognition of the critical role of
manufacturing to job creation, national security, and the
economy.
Research and Development
America's economy is undergoing a fundamental transition
from one based primarily on manufacturing to one based on
innovation, services, and ideas. Two-thirds of America's
economic growth in the 1990s resulted from the introduction
of new technology and 60 percent of the new jobs of the 21st
century require post-secondary education, yet only one-third
of America's workforce has achieved that level.
In order to maintain America's global leadership,
Republicans have provided unprecedented support for federal
research and development to help spur innovation. Federal
R&D funding is up 44 percent from 2001 to $132 billion
in 2005, which includes a 26 percent increase in support for
basic research. The President has doubled the budget for the
National Institutes of Health and increased the National
Science Foundation budget by 30 percent. President Bush and
the Republican Party also support making the R&D tax
credit permanent.
The rapid pace of technological development demands that we
remain on the leading edge of innovation and science.
Republicans are committed to providing the investment and
incentives needed to foster next generation technologies.
The 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development
Act, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President
Bush, increased funding for nanotechnology research. In
addition, the President has dedicated $1.7 billion over five
years to develop hydrogen fuel cells and related
next-generation energy technologies. The President's support
for NASA and vision for space exploration will also enhance
scientific development and technological breakthroughs.
Telecommunications
Broadband provides Americans with high-speed Internet access
connections that improve the nation's economic productivity
and offer life-enhancing applications, such as distance
learning, remote medical diagnostics, and the ability to
work from home more effectively. Broadband technology will
enhance our nation's economic competitiveness and will help
improve education and health care for all Americans.
Republicans have implemented a wide range of policies to
create economic incentives, remove regulatory barriers, and
promote new technologies, all of which are essential to
making broadband competitively available and affordable.
President Bush established the goal of providing every
American with access to affordable broadband by 2007. We
recognize that taxing broadband access would increase its
cost to consumers and stifle the extension of broadband
service. The President has signed into law a two-year
extension of the Internet Access Tax moratorium and is
working with Congressional Republicans to pass legislation
that would explicitly extend the moratorium to broadband and
make it permanent.
Republicans are working to reduce burdensome regulations
that discourage broadband investment. High-speed Internet
access should not be governed by regulations established
decades ago for the telephone. Consumers should have more
options for affordable broadband access. The promise of
broadband over power lines and wireless Internet access
provide new opportunities to connect households, schools,
and businesses to the Internet. Under the President's
leadership, the Administration has nearly doubled the amount
of spectrum available for innovative wireless broadband
applications such as Wi-Fi and Wi-Max.
Republican policies are working:
- Broadband adoption has grown 300 percent from
December 2000 to December 2003 &endash; from 7 million to
28 million lines.
- Over 93 percent of zip codes have broadband
access.
- Ninety-four percent of public schools have broadband
access to the Internet.
By applying 21st century policy to 21st century
technology, we will encourage new investment that will bring
broadband to even more homes in more areas of America.
STRENGTHENING OUR COMMUNITIES
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"The measure of compassion is more than good
intentions, it is good results. By being involved and by
taking responsibility upon ourselves, we gain
something…. We contribute to the life of our country.
We become more than taxpayers and occasional voters, we
become citizens. Citizens, not spectators. Citizens who hear
the call of duty, who stand up for their beliefs, who care
for their families, who control their lives, and who treat
their neighbors with respect and compassion."
-- President George W. Bush
Community is more than just a set of streets and
sidewalks and homes. The strength of communities is the
people who inhabit them, the American citizens who spend
their days working, striving, and caring for their families,
and advancing toward the realization of their dreams. To
ensure that all Americans have an opportunity to build
better lives, we must provide the framework in which
communities can flourish. That requires access to affordable
and accessible health care, protection of America's
environment and natural resources, the maintenance of public
safety and prosecution of people who violate the peace of
communities, guaranteed rights and equal opportunities for
all members of society, and compassionate help for our
fellow citizens who are trapped in unhealthy or harmful
situations. Republicans know that the heart and soul of
America are found in communities across the nation. We honor
the individual character and diversity of communities
throughout America, and we seek to help citizens strengthen
the places they call home.
Promoting Affordable, Accessible Health Care
Republicans recognize that health care is intrinsic to every
family's economic comfort. Americans must have the security
to know that the next illness will not wipe out their
savings or drive them into debt. We appreciate the fact that
market-based health care has given America the most advanced
medical system in the world. Proposals discussed earlier,
such as Health Savings Accounts and Association Health
Plans, provide economic benefits while also making health
care more consumer-driven and increasing access to
high-quality, affordable health care. We reject any notion
of government-run universal health care because we have seen
evidence from around the world that government-run health
care leads to inefficiencies, long waiting periods, and
often substandard health care. And we applaud efforts by
President Bush and the Republican Congress to reform the
broken medical liability system that is raising health care
costs and limiting patients' access to doctors &endash;
doctors who are being driven out of their practices by
excessive medical liability costs. We support continued
efforts to make health care more affordable, more
accessible, and more consumer-driven.
Strengthening Medicare
In 2003, the Congress passed and President Bush signed
historic legislation that strengthens and adds a
prescription drug benefit to Medicare. The new prescription
drug benefit will be available to 40 million seniors and
people with disabilities on January 1, 2006. Until that
time, beneficiaries have access to immediate and significant
savings on prescription drugs through Medicare-approved
prescription drug discount cards. Since drug discount cards
became available on June 1, four million Medicare
beneficiaries have enrolled in the program and 100,000 more
enroll each week. Seniors are saving up to 30 percent off
the retail price of brand name drugs and up to 60 percent
off the price of generic drugs. In addition, more help is
available for those who need it most. Lowincome seniors
receive $600 this year and next year to assist them with the
costs of their prescriptions.
Under the new drug benefit, seniors who like the coverage
they have today can keep it. The new law will encourage
employers to continue their retiree health benefits by
offering them subsidies for their current plans and giving
them the option to supplement the new Medicare drug benefit
in the same way they supplement current Medicare doctor and
hospital benefits. The Medicare Prescription Drug and
Modernization Act improves many facets of the Medicare
program. It increases funding for doctors, hospitals, and
other health care providers, especially in rural areas where
reimbursement levels are far below what is paid in other
regions of the country. The new law will also transform
Medicare into a program that not only enables the treatment
of disease, but helps people stay healthy. In addition to a
new "Welcome to Medicare" physical, the program will contain
new services and screenings to help detect and prevent heart
disease, diabetes, and other major illnesses.
We also applaud the addition of income relation for the
Medicare Part B premium to further protect the Medicare
program for the future and to protect low income seniors
from increased costs.
We applaud the President and Republicans in Congress for
their determination to follow through on this promise to
America's seniors. While others spent many years talking
about adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, this
President and this Congress got it done.
Community Health Centers
To improve access for the underserved, the Republican
Congress and the White House have championed the largest
expansion in the history of the community health centers
program. Community health centers are locally-controlled,
private providers of primary and preventive care services in
the most underserved communities in the country. Health
centers are not federal providers. Funds are awarded
competitively to underserved communities through the federal
grant program. Community health centers provide access to
doctors and nurses regardless of a patient's ability to pay.
One in four children from low-income families receives
health care at community health centers.
The President and Congress have already made it possible for
community health centers to serve an additional 3 million
Americans &endash; a total of 13 million &endash; as part of
the President's five-year plan to fund 1,200 new or expanded
sites to serve an additional 6.1 million people. Today,
there are more than 600 new or expanded health centers
delivering preventive and primary care to patients in
medically underserved communities across America. We endorse
plans to continue increasing access to community health
centers, so that uninsured and low-income Americans have
reliable options for receiving high-quality medical
care.
Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance
Program (SCHIP)
The President has worked to help states develop new
approaches to expand coverage in their Medicaid and SCHIP
programs. Waivers and state plan amendments approved by the
Department of Health and Human Services have expanded
eligibility under these programs to more than 2.6 million
children and improved benefits for more than 8 million
children and adults since 2001. By working with governors of
both parties, the Bush Administration is fostering the
creation of innovative approaches to health care access and
delivery by the states. We support enhancing efforts to
reach the parents of children who are eligible for SCHIP so
that more children receive health coverage.
Health Insurance Tax Relief
We applaud the President's commitment to increasing health
coverage for all Americans. He proposed a refundable tax
credit that will make health insurance more affordable to
millions of Americans who do not have employer-provided
insurance or public insurance. The Treasury Department
estimates the tax credit will extend insurance to between
four and five million Americans.
The Trade Promotion Authority bill, supported by the
Republican Congress and signed by President Bush, provides a
tax credit to help workers obtain health insurance coverage
if they have lost their jobs due to international trade. The
tax credit has helped thousands of displaced workers get
insurance coverage.
Women's Health
As Republicans, we hold dear the health and vitality of our
families. Our efforts to build healthier families must begin
with women &endash; our mothers, daughters, grandmothers,
and granddaughters. Women have unique health care needs.
They are underrepresented in medical research and often do
not have access to the appropriate level of medical care and
treatment. Across this country, and at all levels of
government, Republicans are aggressively developing health
care initiatives targeted specifically at the needs of women
&endash; through expanded research, treatment, disease
management, prevention, and screening initiatives.
The enormous increases in the budget of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) brought about by the Republican
Congress and President Bush are making possible
groundbreaking clinical trials and new research into
diseases and health issues that disproportionately affect
women. This new research also has yielded important
discoveries pertaining to conditions that affect the
elderly, the majority of whom are women, and should promote
future benefit.
The increasing focus upon health care for the elderly holds
promise for advances in the treatment of osteoporosis, heart
disease, and other ailments that should no longer be
considered the inevitable price of old age. We also are
leading efforts to reach out to underserved and minority
female populations, where disparities persist in life
expectancy, infant mortality, and death rates from cancer,
heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses. Moreover, we
favor increased efforts &endash; both through expanded
research and expanded care &endash; to improve maternal and
child health care, as well as health care services for women
before, during, and after pregnancy.
Republicans are dedicated to pursuing women's health care
initiatives that include access to state-of-the-art medical
advances and technology; equality for women in the delivery
of health care services; medical research that focuses
specifically on women; appropriate representation of women
in clinical trials; expanded access to prevention,
screening, health promotion, chronic care, and disease
management services; and direct access to women's health
providers.
Eliminating Health Care Disparities
Disparities in health and health care based upon race,
ethnicity, socio-economic status, or geography are
unacceptable. Historically, African Americans, Hispanics,
Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and
Alaska Natives have experienced poorer health outcomes and
received lower-quality care than the majority of Americans.
For example, infant mortality rates are twice as high among
African Americans as whites, and African American children
are twice as likely to have asthma and six times as likely
to die from asthma as white children. The prevalence of
HIV/AIDS in Latino populations is four times higher than
among whites while the prevalence among African Americans is
nine times higher than that of whites. In addition,
Hispanics are nearly twice as likely to die from diabetes as
whites, and African American adults are almost twice as
likely to die from heart disease as whites. There is also
strong evidence that people living in rural and other
non-metropolitan areas, regardless of their race or
ethnicity, are more likely to experience access problems and
poorer health outcomes. Republicans are committed to
addressing these health and health care disparities.
Progress has been made in recent years in a number of areas,
including enhancement of federal research on health
disparities, identification of barriers to care for our
increasingly diverse population, expansion of the number of
health professionals who are committed to serving minority
and underserved patients and their communities, and
improvement in the quality of care for uninsured and
underserved populations. Republicans believe we must build
on this success and increase these efforts.
We strongly support initiatives to improve the quality of
care delivered to all Americans. We applaud President Bush
for supporting treatment of mental illness. Mental and
physical illness should be treated equitably and fairly. In
addition, we support improved training for health providers,
including efforts to improve communication, collaboration,
and understanding between patients and doctors. We are
funding research to find cures and treatments for illnesses
that disproportionately affect minority populations, as well
as targeted, well-coordinated programs to prevent, manage,
and treat these diseases. We support efforts to encourage
qualified minorities to enter the fields of science and
medicine.
Investing in Cutting Edge Medical Research
America is the world's leader in developing the medical and
pharmaceutical breakthroughs that have revolutionized health
care. President Bush and the Republican Congress recognize
and strongly support scientific advancement, especially in
the area of biomedical research. Working together with
President Bush, the Republican Congress has fulfilled its
pledge to double funding for the National Institutes of
Health. With increased funding, the NIH is now supporting
nearly 40,000 projects, an all-time high. Government
investment in biomedical research yields tangible benefits,
resulting in decreased death rates, better access to health
care, and a better quality of life for all Americans
&endash; especially for underserved and minority
populations. Quality research provides benefits including
disease prevention, early detection, and new, more effective
treatments for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer,
Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's, and HIV/AIDS.
Republicans continue to be active leaders in setting sound
biomedical research policy and remain committed to placing a
high priority on continued world leadership in research,
while maintaining accountability for the use of resources
and a responsibility to uphold the highest ethical
standards. Stem Cell Research Republicans have supported,
and will continue to support, important scientific research
without undermining the fundamental ethical principles that
have guided medical research in this country for decades. We
especially welcome and encourage a stronger emphasis on
adult stem cell and cord blood stem cell research, which has
already provided benefits to hundreds of patients and
provides real promise for treatments to help millions of
Americans.
We recognize that President Bush made a carefully considered
decision to allow federal funding for stem cell research for
the first time, and did not affect stem cell research in the
private sector. We strongly support the President's policy
that prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to encourage
the future destruction of human embryos. In addition, we
applaud the President's call for a comprehensive ban on
human cloning and on the creation of human embryos solely
for experimentation.
In August 2001, President Bush stated: "[T]he hope
[it] offers is amazing…. Yet the ethics of
medicine are not infinitely adaptable. There is at least one
bright line: We do not end some lives for the medical
benefit of others." We wholeheartedly agree.
Long-Term Care Insurance
As Americans live longer, we must consider the costs of
spending more years in retirement and the increasing health
care needs associated with aging. There is a growing need
for long-term care and it calls for long-term planning, both
by individuals and by government. We encourage, at all
levels of government, regulatory flexibility and sensitivity
to individual needs in nursing homes and related facilities.
Sacrifices are being made by millions of men and women to
care for their mothers and fathers. We support proposals by
President Bush and Republicans in Congress to recognize and
reward individual responsibility and compassion by creating
an above-the-line tax deduction for premiums of long-term
care insurance and allowing an additional personal tax
exemption for taking care of an elderly parent at home.
Honoring America's Veterans
As Americans, we must honor our commitment to the 25 million
veterans in the United States. America is dedicated to
honoring its commitment to these patriots. Veterans have
helped shape the American character, and their service
represents the highest form of national service. President
Bush and Congress have increased funding for veterans
services, including substantial increases in Veterans'
Administration (VA) health care funding. This additional
funding has made it possible for the VA to improve health
care access for veterans who need it most, including
low-income veterans, those with service-connected
disabilities, and those who need VA's specialized services.
President Bush has twice signed legislation effectively
providing "concurrent receipt" of both military retiree pay
and VA disability compensation for combat-injured and
highlydisabled veterans, thus reversing a century-old law
preventing concurrent receipts. In addition, President Bush
has fulfilled his promise to cut the disability claims
backlog that existed when he took office and reduce waiting
times for veterans seeking initial medical care. We support
more care to more veterans in more places where they need it
most. We also applaud the President's efforts to maintain
and expand our national cemeteries. And with World War II
veterans dying at the rate of 4,000 a day, we note with
great appreciation the opening of the nation's World War II
Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Our veterans have fought and defended this country in many
wars and proudly raised the American flag on such far-away
places as San Juan Hill, Iwo Jima, and Pork Chop Hill, and
it has become a symbol of our American spirit and unity. We,
as well as they, deplore the deliberate desecration of our
flag and state that its deliberate desecration is not "free
speech," but rather an assault against both our proud
history and our greatest hopes. We therefore support a
Constitutional amendment that will restore to the people,
through their elected representatives, their right to
safeguard Old Glory.
Respecting and Protecting the Environment
Republicans know that economic prosperity is essential to
environmental progress. That belief is supported by
compelling historical evidence. For example, over the last
30 years, air pollution from the six major pollutants
decreased substantially, even as our population grew, our
energy consumption increased, and the economy expanded.
Our Party's environmental policies are geared towards
results. Thanks to President Bush's strong leadership and
the commitment of Congressional Republicans to reform and
innovation, air pollution has been reduced, water quality
has improved, wetlands have been restored, and more than a
thousand brownfields sites are being revitalized.
Republicans also acknowledge the progress made by states and
local communities in environmental stewardship efforts. As
the laboratories of innovation, they should be given
flexibility and authority to address many environmental
concerns.
Finally, we link the security of private property to our
environmental agenda because environmental stewardship has
been best advanced where property is privately held. After
all, people who live on the land, work the land, and own the
land also love the land and protect it. President Bush and
the Republican Congress will safeguard private property
rights by enforcing the Takings Clause of the Fifth
Amendment and by providing just compensation whenever
private property is needed to achieve a compelling public
purpose.
Clear Skies
We support President Bush's Clear Skies proposal, the most
aggressive Presidential initiative in history to reduce
power plant emissions. Clear Skies, through a proven
cap-and-trade system, will reduce by 70 percent emissions of
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury. The
market-based policies in Clear Skies, along with a 90
percent cut in pollution from diesel vehicles, will help
states meet new, more stringent standards to protect public
health. The President's plan also provides regulatory
certainty, enabling power plants to install state-of-the-art
pollution control technologies. These steps will lead to
significant environmental improvements while ensuring a
reliable, affordable electricity supply and keeping
America's coal industry strong.
Revitalizing Urban Communities
Two years ago, President Bush fulfilled a campaign promise
and signed legislation to clean up more of the abandoned and
polluted industrial sites known as brownfields. So far, the
Bush Administration has restored more than 1,000 brownfields
to usable condition, which is more than were restored in the
previous seven years. And that work continues. By
prioritizing cleanup of brownfields, we are encouraging
growth on existing sites and thus preserving greenfields and
undeveloped land. We are also opening usable land for small
businesses and residents in hundreds of communities, and
creating thousands of jobs. We support these efforts to
revitalize urban neighborhoods, both aesthetically and
economically.
National Parks
President Bush's commitment to national parks is producing
results: parks are better managed, better funded, and better
protected. Over the last four years, President Bush has been
fulfilling his campaign promise to address the $4.9 billion
maintenance backlog plaguing the National Park system.
Republicans will continue to support President Bush's
approach to improving national parks, and will move forward
with common-sense management reforms that maximize visitor
satisfaction and protect and conserve the parks' natural
resources for future generations.
Land Conservation and Stewardship
Our air, land, and water have all become cleaner in the last
four years &endash; and this progress can be seen all across
America. The 2002 Farm Bill provided unprecedented levels of
funding to enhance conservation efforts by farmers and
ranchers. And last year President Bush worked with the
Republican leadership in Congress to pass the Healthy
Forests Restoration Act. This law, based on the President's
Healthy Forests Initiative, is reducing the risk of
catastrophic wildfire, saving lives and property, and
improving the health of our forests.
Protecting America's Water Resources
America's wetlands serve as habitat for thousands of species
of wildlife. They also help to trap pollution, clean the
water, reduce the impact of floods, and stabilize shore
areas. Three decades ago, the United States was losing
wetlands at the rate of about 500,000 acres each year.
President Bush is working with the Republican Congress and
state and local officials to fulfill his new national goal
to increase wetland acres and quality by restoring,
improving, and protecting at least three million wetland
acres over the next five years. To achieve this worthy goal,
our Party also will focus on critical resource needs,
including implementing a sensible plan to address coastal
erosion in the Gulf Coast region. Chronic water shortages in
the West are one of the greatest environmental challenges
facing the nation in the coming decades. We support efforts
by the Administration to work with states and local
communities in the West to expand the use of proven tools
like market-based voluntary transfers through water banks
and other water-marketing tools. We also endorse the
President's efforts to work with the state of Florida to
implement the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Our
Party reaffirms the traditional primacy of states over water
allocation. We steadfastly oppose diverting water away from
the Great Lakes region.
Protecting Oceans
Republicans are committed to developing an integrated,
comprehensive national oceans policy. The President and
Congress have supported the work of the U.S. Oceans
Commission, which will offer important recommendations to
improve management, observation, and conservation of oceans
and coastal resources for future generations. Global Climate
Change Republicans are committed to meeting the challenge of
long-term global climate change by relying on markets and
new technologies to improve energy efficiency. These efforts
will help reduce emissions over time while allowing the
economy to grow. Our President and our Party strongly oppose
the Kyoto Protocol and similar mandatory carbon emissions
controls that harm economic growth and destroy American
jobs.
Modernizing the Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) serves a noble purpose,
which Americans overwhelmingly support. Our Party remains
committed to the goal of protecting species to enhance their
chances for survival. Over the last 30 years, successes
under ESA have been limited due to confrontation and
polarization &endash; including an ever-growing barrage of
litigation preventing the Fish and Wildlife Service from
protecting new species and recovering plants and animals
already listed as threatened or endangered.
Republicans believe we can achieve greater progress in
protecting species for future generations through
results-based cooperative conservation programs and
voluntary agreements that encourage private stewardship. The
ESA must be updated to reflect new approaches that focus
resources on species in need of recovery, not lawsuits. As
with other major federal environmental laws, ESA should
require peer-reviewed science, so resources can be focused
on the most pressing recovery efforts. Just as importantly,
the Act should encourage expansion of voluntary agreements
with private property owners while ensuring that ESA
enforcement respects and upholds private property
rights.
Agriculture and Rural America
American farm and ranch families embody some of the best
values of our nation: hard work and risk-taking, love of the
land and love of our country. Farming is the first industry
of America &endash; the industry that feeds us, the industry
that clothes us, and the industry that increasingly provides
more of our energy. The success of America's farmers and
ranchers is essential to the success of the American
economy. The President put his words into action when he
signed the 2002 Farm Bill, passed with strong support from
Republicans in Congress. And President Bush continues to
pursue and enforce international trade agreements that
affect farmers and ranchers.
Republican policies are working, such as the recently
revitalized WTO Doha round negotiations that will create new
opportunities for U.S. farmers and ranchers by cutting
foreign tariffs, expanding quotas for American products, and
eliminating agricultural export subsidies. Since 2001, the
U.S. farm economy has enjoyed tremendous improvement and is
today in a position of historic strength. Farmers' net cash
income for 2003 was $63 billion, an 11.5 percent increase
from 2000. And farmers' equity reached a record $1.16
trillion last year, putting American agriculture in its best
financial health ever.
There is much more to rural America than agriculture,
ranching, and forestry. The kind of economic development
that generates family-sustaining jobs is critical to small
towns and rural communities. President Bush and the
Republican Congress are promoting good schools, accessible
health care, decent housing, safe drinking water and waste
disposal, and efficient transportation. They also are
expanding the availability of the Internet and broadband
service to allow people in rural America to access
world-class technology.
Revitalizing America's Cities
We are proud to meet in a city that enjoyed a new birth of
vitality under the leadership of one of America's foremost
Republican mayors, Rudy Giuliani. New York City evolved from
a city plagued by crime, smothered by government, and void
of opportunity, into one that attracts both families and
young people looking to build careers and enjoy an urban
lifestyle. New York's turnaround is a testament to the great
power of turning Republican ideals into policies and
solutions. By focusing on economic growth and opportunity,
business development, crime control, and the revitalization
of urban eyesores, we can inject fresh energy and
opportunity into America's urban centers.
Lower taxes, passed by the Republican Congress, are
stimulating development and investment in cities around the
country. New homeownership opportunities are giving
residents a stake in urban neighborhoods. Violent crime
rates, including robberies and rapes, were down in 2003. The
President's commitment to cleaning up brownfields and making
them ready for productive purposes is transforming
once-crumbling communities. His Faith-Based Initiative is
extending the work of religious and charitable groups that
operate in cities &endash; serving meals, helping the
homeless, and providing mentors for children. And the No
Child Left Behind law is bringing new hope to parents and
students in inner city schools.
President Bush is building on the successes of Republican
mayors who bring opportunity to inner cities. At the same
time, the President is working with mayors and local leaders
across America to ensure that the unprecedented homeland
security funding provided by the Republican Congress is
spent on shoring up the security of major cities and
preparing first responders for any potential future attack.
By making America's cities places of opportunity and safety,
attractive to citizens of all backgrounds, we ensure that
urban centers remain vital and vibrant communities.
The District of Columbia
Washington, D.C., is a special responsibility of the federal
government and should be a model for urban areas throughout
the country. The city's downhill slide was stopped in the
1990s, both through its own internal efforts and through the
active intervention of Congressional Republicans. The D.C.
homebuyer's tax credit helped to revitalize marginal
neighborhoods and should be reinstated. A landmark tuition
assistance act opened the doors of America's public colleges
and universities to residents of the District. And, thanks
to President Bush acting in concert with Republicans in
Congress, District elementary and high school students are
now benefiting from the $14 million D.C. School Choice
initiative &endash; the first federally-funded school choice
demonstration program.
Local government reform is an issue of importance to both
Congress and residents of the District. Recent city
administrations have made great strides in improving the
operations of city government and, as these efforts
continue, we support yielding more budgetary and legal
autonomy to local elected officials.
As the seat of our federal government and a likely target of
the September 11th attacks, Washington, D.C. also plays a
critical role in homeland security. The federal government
should continue to work closely with city officials to
ensure maximum public safety for both residents of and
visitors to the District, and respect the unique budgetary
constraints under which the city operates.
We respect the design of the Framers of the Constitution
that our nation's capital has a unique status and should
remain independent of any individual state.
Combating Chronic Homelessness
We support efforts to end chronic homelessness by providing
support services and housing for chronically homeless
individuals. Although these individuals comprise roughly ten
percent of the homeless population, they consume a
disproportionately large share of all homeless emergency
services because their housing, health, and other needs have
not before been comprehensively addressed. By taking on the
toughest cases, we can bring help and hope to individuals
who may feel that society long ago left them behind.
Protecting Our Rights, Fighting Criminals, and Supporting
Victims
Republicans and President Bush strongly support an
individual right to own guns, which is explicitly protected
by the Constitution's Second Amendment. Our Party honors the
great American tradition of hunting and we applaud efforts
by the Bush Administration to make more public lands
available to hunters, to increase access to hunting clinics
and safety programs for children and adults, and to improve
opportunities for hunting for Americans with
disabilities.
We believe the Second Amendment and all of the rights
guaranteed by it should enable law-abiding citizens
throughout the country to own firearms in their homes for
self-defense. To protect the rights and safety of
law-abiding citizens, the Congress passed and President Bush
signed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, which allows
active and retired law enforcement officers to carry
concealed guns in public while off-duty. We support efforts
by the Administration and Congress to enhance the instant
background check system for gun purchases and to ensure that
records of lawful transactions are destroyed in a timely
manner. We applaud Congressional Republicans for seeking to
stop frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufacturers,
which is a transparent attempt to deprive citizens of their
Second Amendment rights. We oppose federal licensing of
lawabiding gun owners and national gun registration as a
violation of the Second Amendment and an invasion of privacy
of honest citizens.
We agree that the best way to deter crime is to enforce
existing laws and hand down tough penalties against anyone
who commits a crime with a gun. This approach is working.
Since Project Safe Neighborhoods was instituted in 2001,
hundreds of new federal, state, and local prosecutors have
been hired to target criminals who use guns. Prosecutions
are up 68 percent, and the violent crime victimization rate
is down 21 percent. The Republican Party and President Bush
support a federal Constitutional amendment for victims of
violent crime that would provide specific rights for victims
protected under the U.S. Constitution. We support courts
having the option to impose the death penalty in capital
murder cases. We praise President Bush and Republicans in
Congress for the measures they have taken to protect
pregnant women from violent crime by passing Laci and
Conner's law, which recognizes the common-sense proposition
that when a crime of violence against a pregnant woman kills
or injures her unborn child, there are two victims and two
offenses that should be punished.
Helping Ex-Offenders Contribute to Society
This year, more than 600,000 inmates will be released from
prison. Studies show that, without intervention,
approximately two-thirds will likely be rearrested within
three years of their release. The President has proposed a
four-year, $300 million initiative to reduce recidivism and
help released inmates contribute to their communities. The
initiative will harness the resources and experience of
faith-based and community organizations in providing job
training and placement services to 50,000 non-violent adult
ex-offenders, transitional housing for up to 30,000, and
voluntary mentoring support for those desiring it.
Promoting Drug-Free Communities
Drug abuse and addiction ruin lives. There can be no debate
about it. Every adult has a responsibility to teach children
about the dangers of drugs &endash; in terms of both
physical harm and potential death, as well as lost
opportunities for success. After witnessing eight years of
Presidential inaction on the war against drugs during the
prior Administration, we applaud President Bush for his
steady commitment to reducing drug use among teens. The
Administration recently exceeded its two-year goal of
reducing drug use among young people. The most recent survey
shows an 11 percent drop between 2001 and 2003 in the use of
illicit drugs by teenagers. Among teens, some drugs-- such
as LSD-- have dropped to record-low levels of use. For other
drugs, we are seeing the lowest levels of use in almost a
decade.
To continue this progress, we must ensure that jail time is
used as an effective deterrent to drug use and support the
continued funding of grants to assist schools in drug
testing. At the same time, we should make drug treatment
available to people willing to take the courageous step of
admitting they have a problem and working hard to overcome
it. The President's Access to Recovery (ATR) program is
giving individuals seeking drug treatment expanded access to
effective providers through a new voucher program.
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
The renewal of entire communities is an awesome task that
involves one human face, and one human heart at a time. But
the American people have a long and seasoned history of
working wonders. Government does have a role to play, but as
a partner, not a rival, to the armies of compassion. These
forces have roots in the areas they serve, often based in
local churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples. Their
leaders are people to whom the disadvantaged are not
statistics, but neighbors, friends, and moral individuals
created in the image of God.
We applaud President Bush's efforts to promote the generous
and compassionate work of America's faith-based and
neighborhood charities. The President established the Office
of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House
to coordinate federal, state, and local efforts to tear down
barriers that have prevented religiously affiliated groups
from applying for government grants on an equal footing with
secular organizations. While the federal government must not
promote religious activity, advocate on behalf of any
religion, or fund any organization that discriminates on the
basis of religion when providing taxpayer-funded services,
no organization should be disqualified from receiving
federal funds simply because it displays religious symbols,
has a statement of faith in its mission statement, or has a
religious leader on its board.
As a result of the President's leadership, the federal
government is ending discrimination against faith-based
organizations and now welcomes these groups as partners and
allies in the effort to deliver social services to people in
need. Faith-based groups must show that their programs are
effective at providing help &endash; whether it be serving
the needs of the homeless, mentoring children, or helping
Americans who battle addiction. Faith can often be a crucial
element in the struggle to overcome personal challenges
&endash; and now Americans have the option of receiving
treatment that meets their physical as well as spiritual
needs. We commend the President for his steadfast support of
people and institutions of faith, and we urge the Congress
to act on legislative proposals to enhance private-sector
works of charity and compassion. We also affirm that the
hiring rights of religious organizations must be maintained
so that religious charities do not have to abandon their
religious character in order to provide publicly funded
services.
Calling Americans to Service
We support the President's efforts to encourage volunteer
service and civic involvement to strengthen our communities
and our nation, and to help people in need. In 2002, the
President called on all Americans to dedicate at least two
years or 4,000 hours over the course of their lifetimes to
serving others, and created the USA Freedom Corps to
strengthen America's culture of service. Today more than 63
million Americans are answering the call to serve. The
number of volunteers has increased by 4 million since 2002.
The new Citizens Corps is training people to respond to law
enforcement and emergency needs in more than 1,300
communities across America and Peace Corps enrollment is at
its highest level in 28 years.
Ensuring Equal Opportunities
Our nation is a land of opportunity for all, and our
communities must represent the ideal of equality and justice
for every citizen. The Republican Party favors aggressive,
proactive measures to ensure that no individual is
discriminated against on the basis of race, national origin,
gender, or other characteristics covered by our civil rights
laws. We also favor recruitment and outreach policies that
cast the widest possible net so that the best qualified
individuals are encouraged to apply for jobs, contracts, and
university admissions. We believe in the principle of
affirmative access &endash; taking steps to ensure that
disadvantaged individuals of all colors and ethnic
backgrounds have the opportunity to compete economically and
that no child is left behind educationally. We support a
reasonable approach to Title IX that seeks to expand
opportunities for women without adversely affecting men's
athletics. We praise President Bush for his strong record on
civil rights enforcement, and for becoming the first
President ever to ban racial profiling by the federal
government. Finally, because we are opposed to
discrimination, we reject preferences, quotas, and
set-asides based on skin color, ethnicity, or gender, which
perpetuate divisions and can lead people to question the
accomplishments of successful minorities and women.
Voting Rights
The foundation of our democratic republic is our commitment
to conducting free and fair elections. Unfortunately, in
November 2000, too many people believed they were denied the
right to vote. Many African Americans, Hispanics, and others
fear they may lose the right to vote because of inaccurate
or insecure technology or because of a rolling back in the
gains made by the passage of civil rights legislation. Our
national commitment to a voting process that has integrity
was underscored in 2002 when the Congress passed and the
President signed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). We will
continue to do all we can to ensure that every lawful vote
counts for all Americans.
Removing Barriers for Americans with Disabilities
We support the New Freedom Initiative, President Bush's plan
for fully integrating Americans with disabilities into all
aspects of American life. The New Freedom Initiative is
helping Americans with disabilities by increasing access to
assistive technologies, expanding educational opportunities,
increasing the ability of Americans with disabilities to
integrate into the workforce, and promoting increased access
into daily community life. These are strong efforts to help
Americans with disabilities lead independent, fulfilling
lives.
We applaud the President and Congress for increasing funding
for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),
which requires that eligible students with disabilities be
provided a free, appropriate public education. We also
endorse efforts to protect children and their parents from
being coerced into administering a controlled substance in
order to attend school.
Native Americans
The federal government has a special responsibility, ethical
and legal, to make the American dream accessible to Native
Americans. Unfortunately, the resources that the United
States holds in trust for them, financial and otherwise,
have been misused and abused. While many tribes have become
energetic participants in the mainstream of American life,
the serious social ills afflicting some reservations have
been worsened by decades of mismanagement from Washington.
In its place, we offer these guiding principles:
- Tribal governments are best situated to gauge the
needs of their communities and members.
- Political self-determination and economic
self-sufficiency are twin pillars of an effective Indian
policy.
- Private sector initiatives, rather than public
assistance, can best improve material conditions in
Indian communities.
- High taxes and unreasonable regulations stifle new
and expanded businesses and thwart the creation of job
opportunities and prosperity.
We will continue to work with the Bureau of Indian
Affairs to make the tribal recognition process more
transparent. We will strengthen Native American
selfdetermination by respecting tribal sovereignty,
encouraging economic development on Native lands, and
working with them to reorganize the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and the Indian Health Service. We applaud President Bush for
keeping his promise to eliminate within five years the
maintenance and repairs backlog afflicting Indian schools.
This promise will be achieved in only four years with
funding in the 2005 budget. We support efforts to provide
higher quality health care through the Indian Health
Service. We uphold the unique government-to-government
relationship between the tribes and the United States and
honor our nation's trust obligations to them. We support
efforts to ensure equitable participation in federal
programs by Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and Native
Hawaiians and to preserve their cultures and languages.
In an age of new threats, we recognize the critical role
tribes play in securing our homeland and contributing to our
national defense. We honor the sacrifices made by Native
Americans serving in the military today. They are upholding
the high ideal of service on behalf of liberty. We will
ensure that Indian veterans receive the care and respect
they have earned through their service to America.
Supporting Judges Who Uphold the Law
In the federal courts, scores of judges with activist
backgrounds in the hard-left now have lifetime tenure.
Recent events have made it clear that these judges threaten
America's dearest institutions and our very way of life. In
some states, activist judges are redefining the institution
of marriage. The Pledge of Allegiance has already been
invalidated by the courts once, and the Supreme Court's
ruling has left the Pledge in danger of being struck down
again &endash; not because the American people have rejected
it and the values that it embodies, but because a handful of
activist judges threaten to overturn commonsense and
tradition. And while the vast majority of Americans support
a ban on partial birth abortion, this brutal and violent
practice will likely continue by judicial fiat. We believe
that the self-proclaimed supremacy of these judicial
activists is antithetical to the democratic ideals on which
our nation was founded. President Bush has established a
solid record of nominating only judges who have demonstrated
respect for the Constitution and the democratic processes of
our republic, and Republicans in the Senate have strongly
supported those nominees. We call upon obstructionist
Democrats in the Senate to abandon their unprecedented and
highly irresponsible filibuster of President Bush's highly
qualified judicial nominees, and to allow the Republican
Party to restore respect for the law to America's
courts.
The sound principle of judicial review has turned into an
intolerable presumption of judicial supremacy. A Republican
Congress, working with a Republican president, will restore
the separation of powers and re-establish a government of
law. There are different ways to achieve that goal, such as
using Article III of the Constitution to limit federal court
jurisdiction; for example, in instances where judges are
abusing their power by banning the use of "under God" in the
Pledge of Allegiance or prohibiting depictions of the Ten
Commandments, and potential actions invalidating the Defense
of Marriage Act (DOMA). Additionally, we condemn judicial
activists and their unwarranted and unconstitutional
restrictions on the free exercise of religion in the public
square.
Leading the Fight against HIV/AIDS &endash; At Home and
Abroad
HIV/AIDS is one of the deadliest epidemics in human history.
An estimated 38 million people worldwide are living with
HIV/AIDS and more than 20 million people have died as a
result of the disease. This disease has created an estimated
14 million HIV/AIDS orphans &endash; children who have lost
at least one parent to HIV/AIDS. In the U.S., nearly one
million Americans are believed to be infected with HIV.
We fully support the President's leadership in dramatically
expanding resources to find an HIV/AIDS vaccine and in
devoting at least $15 billion over five years towards global
prevention, care, and treatment programs. Since taking
office, President Bush has virtually tripled the United
States' annual financial commitment to the global war on
HIV/AIDS.
We support the emphasis on prevention in the President's
Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS relief and endorse its embrace
of the successful Ugandan model promoting the "ABC" approach
to prevention that encourages abstinence and being faithful
to one lifetime partner, along with other behavioral changes
intended to eliminate or reduce exposure risk.
We support the President's Advancing HIV Prevention
Initiative that emphasizes routine testing, early diagnosis,
ongoing monitoring, and elimination of HIV/AIDS in newborn
babies and infants. We also support the President's efforts
to double the amount spent on abstinence-only education and
to promote healthy relationships.
We recognize the unique and special vulnerability of women
and girls to HIV infection from abusive and coercive
behavior beyond their control and encourage expanded efforts
to address this problem through legal and cultural reform.
We also support more efforts to eradicate sex trafficking
and prostitution and their underlying causes.
We support the expansion of programs providing support for
those orphaned by HIV/AIDS. We fully support the use of
faith-based organizations as partners on the ground in
HIV/AIDS relief efforts because they often have the most
capability, credibility, and conviction for performing this
important work in different communities, regions, and
countries. We also believe treatment and prevention of drug
abuse are essential components of HIV protection.
We commend the President for his support of the Ryan White
CARE Act and call for its reauthorization. We believe that
ensuring access to treatment must be the priority of
HIV/AIDS care programs. The President's policy is to provide
safe, effective, high quality HIV/AIDS drugs at the lowest
possible cost. He has accelerated the FDA review process for
HIV/AIDS drugs and therapies for use under the Emergency
Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief.
President Bush led the G-8 in endorsing the establishment of
a Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, a virtual consortium to
accelerate HIV vaccine development. The President also
announced plans to establish a second HIV Vaccine Research
and Development Center in the U.S., in addition to the one
at the National Institutes of Health. The new center will
become a key component of the Global HIV Vaccine
Enterprise.
Americans In The Territories
We welcome greater participation in all aspects of the
political process by Americans residing in Guam, the Virgin
Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas, and Puerto
Rico. Since no single approach can meet the needs of those
diverse communities, we emphasize respect for their wishes
regarding their relationship to the rest of the Union. We
affirm their right to seek the full extension of the
Constitution, with all the rights and responsibilities it
entails.
We support the Native American Samoans' efforts to preserve
their culture and land-tenure system, which fosters
self-reliance and strong extended-family values.
We support increased local self-government for the United
States citizens of the Virgin Islands, and closer
cooperation between the local and federal governments to
promote private sector-led development and self-sufficiency.
We recognize that Guam is a strategically vital U.S.
territory in the far western Pacific, an American fortress
in the Asian region. We affirm our support for the patriotic
U.S. citizens of Guam to achieve greater local
self-government, an improved federal-territorial
relationship, new economic development strategies, and
continued self-determination as desired with respect to
political status.
We support the right of the United States citizens of Puerto
Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state
after they freely so determine. We recognize that Congress
has the final authority to define the Constitutionally valid
options for Puerto Rico to achieve a permanent
non-territorial status with government by consent and full
enfranchisement. As long as Puerto Rico is not a state,
however, the will of its people regarding their political
status should be ascertained by means of a general right of
referendum or specific referenda sponsored by the United
States government.
Supporting Humane and Legal Immigration
The Republican Party supports reforming the immigration
system to ensure that it is legal, safe, orderly and humane.
It also supports measures to ensure that the immigration
system is structured to address the needs of national
security. America is a stronger and better nation because of
the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants, and
the Republican Party honors them. A growing economy requires
a growing number of workers, and President Bush has proposed
a new temporary worker program that applies when no
Americans can be found to fill the jobs. This new program
would allow workers who currently hold jobs to come out of
the shadows and to participate legally in America's economy.
It would allow men and women who enter the program to apply
for citizenship in the same manner as those who apply from
outside the United States. There must be strong workplace
enforcement with tough penalties against employees and
employers who violate immigration laws. We oppose amnesty
because it would have the effect of encouraging illegal
immigration and would give an unfair advantage to those who
have broken our laws.
To better ensure that immigrants enter the United States
only through legal means that allow for verification of
their identity, reconnaissance cameras, border patrol
agents, and unmanned aerial flights have all been increased
at the border. In addition, Border Patrol agents now have
sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens without having
first to go through the cumbersome process of allowing the
illegal alien to have a hearing before an immigration judge.
We support these efforts to enforce the law while welcoming
immigrants who enter America through legal avenues.
PROTECTING OUR FAMILIES
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"We are living in a time of great change &endash; in
our world, in our economy, in science and medicine. Yet some
things endure &endash; courage and compassion, reverence and
integrity, respect for differences of faith and race. The
values we try to live by never change. And they are
instilled in us by fundamental institutions, such as
families and schools and religious congregations. These
institutions, these unseen pillars of civilization, must
remain strong in America, and we will defend them. We must
stand with our families to help them raise healthy,
responsible children." -- President George W.
Bush
Families are the cornerstone of our culture -- the
building blocks of a strong society. In families, children
learn values and ideals, as well as the basic lessons that
get them started on a lifelong path of education. We believe
that every child deserves the chance to be born and grow up
in a loving family. We also believe that while families
exist in many different forms, there are ideals to strive
for. Evidence shows us that children have the best chance at
success when raised by a mother and a father who love and
respect each other as well as their children. We also know
that family breakdown makes America less stable. To create a
sturdy foundation for the strength and success of our
citizens and our nation, Republicans support policies that
promote strong families. We also support a government that
makes it easier for parents to raise their children in a
world that offers unprecedented opportunities and new
challenges. We offer an approach based on our common values
and our common hopes. It will lead to a better America, one
family at a time.
The Next Steps in Welfare Reform
In 1996, the Republican Congress made history by passing
welfare reform that revolutionized the way the government
helps people build better lives for themselves. The federal
government gave states the flexibility to manage the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and both
states and federal authorities began treating welfare as a
step up rather than a way of life. Since the 1996
Republican-led law, welfare caseloads have declined by half,
and nearly three million Americans have been lifted out of
poverty.
But there is more work to do. We need to build on the
results of the 1996 reforms and continue to move welfare
recipients into jobs and off the welfare rolls. This is
especially important for single women and mothers, who
continue to rely on welfare and fear that they cannot find a
job or enter a training program because they need to care
for their children.
We endorse President Bush's plan to extend the benefits of
welfare reform by strengthening work requirements and
promoting healthy marriages, and offering training,
transportation, and child care services to help people
become self-sufficient. Every American deserves a chance to
know the pride of earning a paycheck and providing for his
or her family.
Promoting Healthy Marriages and Responsible Fatherhood
We support the President's welfare reform proposals that
promote child wellbeing and stronger marriages. We recognize
the importance of having in the home a father and a mother
who are married. The two-parent family still provides the
best environment of stability, discipline, responsibility,
and character. We recognize that fathers play a critical
role in providing stability for their children. Studies show
that children are much more likely to do well in school and
avoid crime and drugs when they have a responsible father in
their lives. Promoting responsible fatherhood will have
longlasting benefits for families and for communities. We
support President Bush's initiatives to reaffirm the
important role fathers play in their children's lives and to
help men meet the responsibilities of fatherhood.
Supporting Adoption and Foster Children
We support the President's strong efforts to promote
adoption through increased tax incentives and bonuses to
states that place older children in permanent family homes,
as well as his efforts to promote foster care by increasing
the allocation of funds for preventive and family
services.
Promoting Healthy Choices, Including Abstinence
Children's health remains a top priority for every family
and for our country. Despite advances in medicine,
environmental progress, and increased efforts to keep
children safe at home and in communities, alarming trends in
overweight children and childhood obesity jeopardize the
health of millions of children. Too many of America's youth
do not exercise, are overweight, and have poor dietary
habits. This leads to complications in childhood and as
adults. Five chronic diseases associated with obesity
&endash; heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (such as bronchitis, emphysema, and
asthma), and diabetes &endash; account for more than
two-thirds of all deaths in the United States.
Extensive research, much of it conducted or funded by the
federal government, has shown that improving overall health,
and thus preventing disease and premature death, is as easy
as making small adjustments and improvements in the
activities of daily life. We applaud the President's effort
to increase public awareness about the benefits of physical
fitness through programs like "HealthierUS," which focuses
on physical activity; a nutritious diet; medical screenings;
and healthy choices &endash; and "VERB," which encourages
young people to be physically active every day.
Each year more than three million American teenagers
contract sexually transmitted diseases, causing emotional
harm and serious health consequences, even death. We support
efforts to educate teens and parents about the health risks
associated with early sexual activity and provide the tools
needed to help teens make healthy choices. Abstinence from
sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent
effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually
transmitted diseases, including sexually transmitted
HIV/AIDS. Therefore, we support doubling abstinence
education funding. We oppose school-based clinics that
provide referrals, counseling, and related services for
contraception and abortion. We oppose school-based mental
health programs that include recommendations for the use of
psychotropic drugs.
Improving Work Schedule Flexibility
The President and Republicans in Congress are working to
provide private-sector workers the same flexible scheduling
options that government employees already enjoy. Now that
more families have both parents in the workforce, American
workers need more control over their work schedules. More
flexibility in the workplace will help Americans to better
manage the demands of work and family. And that will make
families stronger. Comp-time and flex-time enable employees
to choose paid time off as an alternative to overtime pay.
Both of these programs would be voluntary to employees and
would include employee protections to prevent employers from
coercing or forcing employees to take time off in lieu of
receiving overtime pay.
Protecting Family Privacy
President Bush created the National Do Not Call Registry, a
tool that will help ensure that telemarketers respect the
privacy of our nation's citizens. It will allow people to
limit most unwanted telemarketing calls by registering their
home or cell phone numbers. Registration can be completed by
phone or over the Internet, and it is free of charge. The
service also comes at no expense to the taxpayers.
Unauthorized and unwelcome email, commonly known as spam,
interferes with efficient and effective business and family
communications. We support efforts to address this growing
problem.
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing financial
crimes in our nation. Last year alone, nearly 10 million
Americans had their identities stolen by criminals who
robbed them and the nation's businesses of nearly $50
billion through fraudulent transactions. The crime of
identity theft undermines the basic trust on which our
economy depends. And like other forms of stealing, identity
theft leaves the victim poorer and feeling terribly
violated.
We praise President Bush and Republicans in Congress for
passing the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which
established a national system of fraud detection so that
identity thieves can be stopped before they run up tens of
thousands of dollars in illegal purchases. Thanks to this
law, victims can make one phone call to report the crime to
alert all three major credit rating agencies and to protect
their credit ratings. We further praise President Bush and
Republicans in Congress for passing the Identity Theft
Penalty Enhancement Act, which provides a real deterrent by
toughening the prison sentences for those who use identity
theft to commit other crimes, including terrorism. It
reflects our government's resolve to answer serious offenses
with serious penalties. And we praise President Bush for the
broader effort he has waged to prevent identity theft. The
U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, and Secret Service
are working with local and state officials to crack down on
the criminal networks that are responsible for much of the
identity theft that occurs in America. The Federal Trade
Commission is training local law enforcement in the
detection of identity theft and has set up the ID Theft Data
Clearinghouse, which keeps track of complaints across the
country and provides those records to prosecutors seeking to
take down organized identity theft rings.
Protecting the Educational Rights of Parents and Students
As stated earlier, we applaud efforts to promote school
choice initiatives that give parents more control over their
children's education. By the same token, we defend the
option for home schooling and call for vigilant enforcement
of laws designed to protect family rights and privacy in
education. Children should not be compelled to answer
offensive or intrusive questionnaires. We will continue to
work for the return of voluntary school prayer to our
schools and will strongly enforce the Republican legislation
that guarantees equal access to school facilities by student
religious groups. We strongly support voluntary
student-initiated prayer in school without governmental
interference. We strongly disagree with the Supreme Court's
rulings against studentinitiated prayer.
Protecting Children from Obscenity and
Exploitation
The Republican Party shares the position of the United
States Supreme Court in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15
(1973), that obscene material is "unprotected by the first
amendment" (413 U.S. at 23) and that "to equate the free and
robust exchange of ideas and political debate with
commercial exploitation of obscene material demeans the
grand conception of the first amendment and its high
purposes in the historic struggle for freedom." Miller, 413
U.S. at 34. We therefore support vigorous prosecution of
obscene material by the U.S. Department of Justice.
We applaud the Congress for passing, and the President for
signing, the Protect Act. As the President said, this law
"will greatly assist law enforcement in tracking criminals
who would harm our children, and will greatly help in
rescuing the youngest victims of crime." The law formally
established a national Amber Alert coordinator in the
Department of Justice to help facilitate efforts to find
missing children. It also added important tools to fight
child exploitation by making obscene images of children,
even those created with computer technology, illegal. We
agree that strengthening the laws against child abuse will
protect our children, help preserve the family structure,
and promote a healthy environment in which our children can
grow. With ever more children accessing material over the
Internet, we support efforts to bolster online protections
that prevent children from being exposed to pornographic
images and solicitations. And we applaud public and private
efforts to create online safe areas for children. We praise
President Bush and Congressional Republicans for their
leadership in passing the Dot Kids Implementation and
Efficiency Act, which created a secure domain on the
Internet where parents know that it is safe for their
children to learn and play and explore.
Protecting Marriage
We strongly support President Bush's call for a
Constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage, and
we believe that neither federal nor state judges nor
bureaucrats should force states to recognize other living
arrangements as equivalent to marriage. We believe, and the
social science confirms, that the well-being of children is
best accomplished in the environment of the home, nurtured
by their mother and father anchored by the bonds of
marriage. We further believe that legal recognition and the
accompanying benefits afforded couples should be preserved
for that unique and special union of one man and one woman
which has historically been called marriage.
After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and
millennia of human experience, a few judges and local
authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental
institution of civilization, the union of a man and a woman
in marriage. Attempts to redefine marriage in a single state
or city could have serious consequences throughout the
country, and anything less than a Constitutional amendment,
passed by the Congress and ratified by the states, is
vulnerable to being overturned by activist judges. On a
matter of such importance, the voice of the people must be
heard. The Constitutional amendment process guarantees that
the final decision will rest with the American people and
their elected representatives. President Bush will also
vigorously defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which was
supported by both parties and passed by 85 votes in the
Senate. This common sense law reaffirms the right of states
not to recognize same-sex marriages licensed in other
states.
President Bush said, "We will not stand for judges who
undermine democracy by legislating from the bench and try to
remake America by court order." The Republican House of
Representatives has responded to this challenge by passing
H.R. 3313, a bill to withdraw jurisdiction from the federal
courts over the Defense of Marriage Act. We urge Congress to
use its Article III power to enact this into law, so that
activist federal judges cannot force 49 other states to
approve and recognize Massachusetts' attempt to redefine
marriage.
Promoting a Culture of Life
As a country, we must keep our pledge to the first guarantee
of the Declaration of Independence. That is why we say the
unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life
which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment
to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make it
clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to
unborn children.
Our purpose is to have legislative and judicial protection
of that right against those who perform abortions. We oppose
using public revenues for abortion and will not fund
organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment
of judges who respect traditional family values and the
sanctity of innocent human life. Our goal is to ensure that
women with problem pregnancies have the kind of support,
material and otherwise, they need for themselves and for
their babies, not to be punitive towards those for whose
difficult situation we have only compassion. We oppose
abortion, but our pro-life agenda does not include punitive
action against women who have an abortion. We salute those
who provide alternatives to abortion and offer adoption
services, and we commend Congressional Republicans for
expanding assistance to adopting families and for removing
racial barriers to adoption. We join the President in
supporting crisis pregnancy programs and parental
notification laws. And we applaud President Bush for
allowing states to extend health care coverage to unborn
children.
We praise the President for his bold leadership in
defense of life. We praise him for signing the Born Alive
Infants Protection Act. This important legislation ensures
that every infant born alive &endash; including an infant
who survives an abortion procedure &endash; is considered a
person under federal law.
We praise Republicans in Congress for passing, with
strong bipartisan support, a ban on the inhumane procedure
known as partial birth abortion. And we applaud President
Bush for signing legislation outlawing partial birth
abortion and for vigorously defending it in the courts.
In signing the partial birth abortion ban, President Bush
reminded us that "the most basic duty of government is to
defend the life of the innocent. Every person, however frail
or vulnerable, has a place and a purpose in this world." We
affirm the inherent dignity and worth of all people. We
oppose the non-consensual withholding of care or treatment
because of disability, age, or infirmity, just as we oppose
euthanasia and assisted suicide, which especially endanger
the poor and those on the margins of society. We support
President Bush's decision to restore the Drug Enforcement
Administration's policy that controlled substances shall not
be used for assisted suicide. We applaud Congressional
Republicans for their leadership against those abuses and
their pioneering legislation to focus research and treatment
resources on the alleviation of pain and the care of
terminally ill patients.
SUMMARY AND CALL TO ACTION
(return to table of
contents)
For 150 years, our Party has found its purpose in its
principles. We confront big challenges instead of passing
them on to future generations. We move forward with needed
reforms to make the government work better for citizens. We
fight important battles and champion freedom because by
expanding liberty, we make our nation more secure.
This is the choice the American people face &endash; moving
forward or looking back, reforming government or settling
for the status quo, producing results or playing politics.
As Republicans, we know who we are and what we believe. As
the Party of the open door, while steadfast in our
commitment to our ideals, we respect and accept that members
of our Party can have deeply held and sometimes differing
views. This diversity is a source of strength, not a sign of
weakness, and so we welcome into our ranks all who may hold
differing positions. We commit to resolve our differences
with civility, trust, and mutual respect, and to affirm the
common goals and beliefs that unite us.
As the Party of Lincoln, we stand for freedom.
We stand for the freedom of families and individuals to have
good schools, good health care, and affordable housing and
services.
We stand for the freedom that comes with a good paying job
in a growing economy.
We stand for the freedom and dignity of every human life, in
every stage of life.
We know that freedom is not America's gift to the world;
freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man, woman, and
child in the world. And we stand for a hopeful tomorrow that
will come from total and complete victory in the War on
Terror.
These are values worthy of a great nation. And they are
values worth fighting for. That is exactly what President
George W. Bush continues to do. He is protecting us from
danger by being prepared, strong, and steadfast. Vigilance
is never easy. But it is always essential, now more than
ever.
George W. Bush has done the hard work and made the hard
choices required of an American President in challenging
times. Because of his leadership, we are strong. Because of
his vision, we will be even stronger. That is the pledge of
this platform … and the promise of this convention.
REPORTED BY FULL COMMITTEE
August 26, 2004 Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
New York, New York
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