DUBYA: Igor. In Ingles?
RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IGOR IVANOV [repsonding in English]: Thank you for receiving us, first thing.

In other words, I don't think people ought to be compelled to make the decision [concerning smallpox vaccination] which they think is best for their family.

And I also recognize the limitations of government. Government can hand out money and, frankly, we do a pretty good job of it sometimes.

Well, I think what has to happen is there first be a strategy that recognizes that the Czech Republic can provide a certain contribution, or the French, or the British — not the French — but the Germans or the British can provide certain kind of capabilities, and that we dovetail each capability to an overall strategy.

And just like the United Nations has agreed that it is important to disarm him, for the sake of peace, and so the next step will be to put an inspection regime in there to — after all the declarations and after all the preamble to inspections, that he's got to show the world he's disarming.

And job creation and economic security — job creation and economic security, as well as homeland security, are the two most important priorities we face.

It doesn't make any sense to have a forest policy that will not allow for thinning and clearing, a forest policy that is so backward that we allow kindling to build up in these forests, and then with an act of nature, or with a sleight of hand by mankind, our national treasures burn to the ground.

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

But the best way to protect the homeland is to find these killers. And that's exactly what our country is doing, one person at a time. It's like an international manhunt. And we're making progress.

We're closely monitoring it. This is a — any strike's a tough situation, but this one happens to come at a — or a lockout is a tough situation, or no work is a tough situation.

I appreciate all the members of Congress working to come up with a resolution. It sends a clear signal to the world that this country is determined to disarm Iraq, and thereby bring peace to the world.

We're allowing our forests to grow up like giant piles of kindling, and just hoping that something doesn't happen. We're — backwards policy.

I say priorities. I say priorities. The most important priority we have today and tomorrow is to protect the homeland. That's the most priority in America.

We've got to understand, in America there are pockets of despair and hopelessness, places where people hurt because they're not sure if America is meant for them, places where people are addicted. And government can help eradicate these pockets by handing out money.

I'm talking about Iraq. That country has got a leader which has attacked two nations in the neighborhood, a leader who has killed thousands of people, a leader who is brutal — see, remember, we believe every life matters and every life is precious — a leader, if there is dissent, will kill the dissenter, a leader who told the United Nations and the world he would not develop weapons of mass destruction, and for 11 long years has stiffed the world.

If you want to keep the peace, you've got to have the authorization to use force.

I want you to tell your children that when they hear all the talk and all the speculation and all the thousands of hours of so-called experts babbling away about this, that or the other, that the true policy of this government is to achieve peace for generations to come.

You need to tell your loved ones, the little ones in particular, that when they hear the President talking about Al Qaeda, Iraq and other places, I do so because I long for peace.

And then you say, well, why, Mr. President, do you need to talk about making the tax relief permanent? Because a quirk in the law in the United States Senate says that you won't — we're going to cut your taxes, but in 10 years it will have come back. It's hard for me to explain. I mean, how can you say, on the one hand, we're cutting your taxes, on the other hand, it goes away after 10 years?

And one of the issues we're faced with is this — because of a quirk in the law, this tax relief plan that we have passed is going to expire in 10 years. I admit that's kind of hard to explain. That's tough to explain in Crawford, for example, when you tell them we'll get you tax cuts, but we're going to take it away from you.

But here's the problem, here's the problem — because of the Senate rules, all the tax relief that we passed, which both Republicans and Democrats voted for, goes away after 10 years. Now, that's a hard one to explain at the coffee shop there in Crawford.

There's no doubt in my mind that we should allow the world worst leaders to hold America hostage, to threaten our peace, to threaten our friends and allies with the world's worst weapons.

I will first remind the United Nations that for 11 long years, Saddam Hussein has side-stepped, crawfished, wheedled out of any agreement he had made not to harbor — not to develop weapons of mass destruction, agreements he's made to treat the people within his country with respect. And so I'm going to call upon the world to recognize that he is stiffing the world.

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

Because of a quirk in the Senate law, all the work that we did reverts back to normal in 10 years, normal being what it was prior to the tax relief. In other words it's kind of hard to explain. But you get tax relief and you don't get tax relief, see. It stays in place for 10 years and then it goes away.

We need to thin. We need to make our forests healthy by using some common sense ... We need to understand, if you let kindling build up and there's a lightning strike, you're going to get yourself a big fire.

People are beginning to get the message. I mean, Americans who have no idea what good forest policy means are beginning to see the fires on TV. It's a sad way for people to learn, but it's happening, and we're beginning to make some progress.

I was in Mississippi during my so called vacation. I traveled to Mississippi. And the — I met a fellow who had — is a religious man, and he heard the call of taking his practice, his medical practice, into the Mississippi Delta, which is a poor, poor region of America. It's a significant percentage of the population there is African American. These poor folks need health care.

Nothing he has done has convinced me — I'm confident the Secretary of Defense — that he is the kind of fellow that is willing to forgo weapons of mass destruction, is willing to be a peaceful neighbor, that is — will honor the people — the Iraqi people of all stripes, will — values human life. He hasn't convinced me, nor has he convinced my administration.

I had the honor of meeting a fellow named Jerome Harvey. He's a professional fire fighter who volunteers his time to help people in need. He grew up in a volunteer fire department, in the sense of taking on this important job as — for his lifetime. I bring him up because he's helping others learn how to fight fire. He's a part of what I call a soldier in the army of compassion.

We've got problems, we've got challenges, this generation has got challenges to meet and we're going to meet those challenges head on. We've got the challenge of fighting and winning a war against terrorists and we're going to win that war against terrorists. We've got the challenges of protecting the homeland and we will do everything in our power to protect the homeland. And we've got the challenge of economic security. Economic security in this part of the world is a big challenge, and I understand that. But we'll do everything in our power to overcome that challenge, as well. No, this is America — American land based upon strong values, inhabited by great people. There's no doubt in my mind that the challenges we face will be challenges we overcome.

Listen, thank you all for coming. I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here.

The thing about the death tax, the death tax is punitive on small business owners. It is very tough on farmers and ranchers. it's hard to be able to keep your farm and your family if you've got a big appraisal value when a loved one dies. I firmly believe the death tax is good for people from all walks of life all throughout our society.

We've got to be able to put the right people in the right job at the right time, without a thick book of rules that have little to do with protecting the American people.

I believe there's all kinds of brilliant and smart and capable Palestinians that, given the chance, given a chance to emerge — and by the way, people committed to peace — and given the chance to articulate that vision of peace will do so.

I'm a patient man. But I haven't changed my opinion since the last time [King Abdullah of Jordan] was in the Oval Office. And one of the things we will do is consult with our friends. But he just needs to know how I feel. He knows how I feel, I had the opportunity and the honor of explaining that to him before and he'll find out I haven't changed my mind.

I see Senator Lieberman, who is really working hard in the Senate to cobble together a homeland security bill that will work.

Anybody who goes into court and wins their case ought to get full economic damages. At the same time, we must prevent excessive awards that drive up costs, encourage frivolous lawsuits, and promote drawn-out legal proceedings. And that is why we need a reasonable federal limit on non-economic damages awarded in medical liability lawsuits, and the reasonable limit in my judgment ought to be $250,000.

We just had a fantastic and very interesting discussion about problems that affect patients — patients in North Carolina, health care patients in Nevada, problems that affect our docs. ...Health care costs are up because docs are worried about getting sued and, therefore, oftentimes prescribe unnecessary and costly treatments. ... Because of the system, insurers no longer insure docs. ...And if docs don't practice medicine, it's hard to have good health care. ...[Jill Barnes is] eight weeks pregnant. She talks about the inability to find a doc. ...Lauri Peel had trouble finding a doc when she moved to Raleigh, because a lot of the practices were full. ...Lauri's looking for a doc right now.

But the best way to protect the homeland is to hunt the killers down one by one and bring them to justice, and that's what this government is going to do.

It's important for people to understand, particularly in Washington, this Department of Homeland Security is not a good Republican idea, it's not a good Democrat idea, it's simply an American idea, and they need to get their work done.

But the truth of the matter is, we can't pass a law that says you'll love your neighbor like yourself. And we can't pass a law that says you will be honest. We can pass laws that say, if you're not honest, we'll get you.

And we did something else that's important — it's important for all small business owners — and that is we eliminated the death tax. I say we eliminated the death tax. By a quirk of the Senate rules, the death tax, however, isn't eliminated after 10 years. That's a hard one to explain. We eliminated it, but didn't eliminate it.

One of the worst taxes — one of the worst taxes in America is what they call the death tax. It's a tax that taxes people's assets more than once. It's a tax that hurts farmers and ranchers. It says you cannot leave your business —if you're a small business owner — to your relative.

I believe people have taken a step back and asked, "What's important in life?" You know, the bottom line and this corporate America stuff, is that important? Or is serving your neighbor, loving your neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself?

Over 75 percent of white Americans own their home, and less than 50 percent of Hispanos and African Americans don't own their home. And that's a gap, that's a homeownership gap.

It is conservative to understand government can hand out money, but it cannot put hope in people's hearts.

But corporate America has got to understand there's a higher calling than trying to fudge the numbers, trying to slip a billion here or a billion there and may hope nobody notices.

Listen, we've got a lot of work to do to make sure the Forest Service has got wise forest policy — to make sure to maintain the forests so that they're healthy and viable, and not become kindling-boxes.

You know, the enemy would have loved to have seen a scrawny little budget up there.

We'd better make sure, for the good of the country, that the [American] Dream is vibrant and alive. It starts with having great education systems for every single child. ...It means we use the mighty muscle of the federal government in combination with state and local governments to encourage owning your own home. That's what that means. And it means — it means that each of us, each of us, have a responsibility in the great country to put something greater than ourselves — to promote something greater than ourselves. And to me, that something greater than yourself is to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself.

Part of being a secure America is to encourage homeownership. So somebody can say, this is my home, welcome to my home.

But Mel's mother and daddy — Mel's mother and dad put him on an airplane to come to America when he was a young boy, because they didn't want his son growing up in a country that wasn't free.

Their job is to collect tariffs and to worry about people bringing things into our country, and yet they work for the Treasury Department. Well, the Treasury Department's job is to worry about fiscal matters, not the security of the homeland.

Or how about the Coast Guard? The Coast Guard can do a good job of patrolling our borders, and they do. The Coast Guard is a fine outfit. But guess who they report to? The Transportation Department. The Transportation Department is worried about highways and airplanes and railroads.

I believe by being strong, diligent, by speaking out against right from wrong, by calling evil what it is, we can lead the world to a more peaceful tomorrow.

And, finally, we repealed the death tax. Now — but because of a quirk in the law, that repeal isn't permanent. It's hard for me to explain why. They repeal it, but didn't repeal it.

I read the report put out by the bureaucracy.

It's an interesting question about leadership. Does a leader lead, or does a leader follow? Does a leader lead opinion, or does a leader try to chase public opinion? My view is the leader leads. ... I understand a leader can't do everything. And so, therefore, a leader must be willing to surround himself, in my case, with smart, capable, honorable people. A leader must be willing to listen. And then a leader must be decisive enough to make a decision and stick by it. In politics, in order to lead, you've got to know what you believe. You have to stand on principle, you have to believe in certain values. And you must defend them at all costs. A politician who takes a poll to figure out what to believe is a politician who is constantly going to be trying to lead through — it's like a dog chasing its tail. And, finally, any leader must — in order to lead, must understand — must have a vision about where you're going.

And I'm pleased to report, as you can probably see in your newspapers, [Arab leaders] are now, they're involved. I think one of our — and the reason I mention that is because I think their involvement to a process that I'm optimistic will succeed will then enable us to continue to more likely have an effect on promoting values that we hold dear — values of rule of law and democracy and minority rights.

Yes, the human condition is very important to me. I mean, it is — and that's one way to make sure that the terrorists are less likely to be effective in their recruiting, is to promote those conditions necessary for human beings to realize their full potential, such as good health, and good education, and prosperity — those habits necessary for the growth of prosperity.

Sure. I'm a patient man. And I am a deliberate man. But the word "contain" doesn't work if someone's got the capacity to deliver a weapon of mass destruction. How can you contain somebody when they've got the ability to blackmail or launch a weapon?

I also challenge Cuba's government to ease its stranglehold, to change its stranglehold on private economic activity.

Show the world you respect Cuban citizens enough to listen to your citizens and count their votes.

He's starving his own people... [and imprisoning intellectuals in] a Gulag the size of Houston.

And one of the things we've got to make sure that we do is anything.

I think the operative question is, how soon will you start working on reforms. That's the — if I could put a question in your own mouth. The answer is, as soon as possible. That's what we discussed about — how quickly can we begin the reform process. That's also, is what we'll with the Arab leaders who have got an interest in the area, about how to get reforms going.

We're dealing with centuries and years of hatred, and I understand that.

After all, a week ago, there were — Yasser Arafat was boarded up in his building in Ramallah, a building full of, evidently, German peace protestors and all kinds of people. They're now out. He's now free to show leadership, to lead the world.

I do not have a calendar on my desk that says, at such and such a time you will stop. You, President Bush, on such and such a date will have run out the string and it's time for you to quit — that calendar doesn't exist. Because my mind-frame is this — when it comes to defending our freedoms, no matter how long it takes, that's exactly what this country is going to do.

Reading is the new civil right. Because if you can't read, you cannot possibly be educated, and if you're not educated, you can't succeed. And so in order to make sure — in order to make sure that everybody — and I mean everybody — I don't care how you vote, everybody gets a shot. We've got to make sure that everybody gets educated.

And I — there is a role for government. When we fund programs, we ought not to discriminate against faith-based programs. And we ought not to cause the faith-based program to have to change its mission in order to receive any money. Otherwise it won't be a faith-based program. It will fall into the old government program.

And when they end up helping somebody who's been on welfare, they realize they're more help than the person they're trying to help.

DUBYA: Maybe I should be a little less direct and be a little more nuanced, and say we support regime change.
REPORTER: That's a change though, isn't it, a change in policy?
DUBYA: No, it's really not. Regime change was the policy of my predecessor, as well.
REPORTER: And your father?
DUBYA: You know, I can't remember that far back. It's certainly the policy of my administration. I think regime change sounds a lot more civil, doesn't it? The world would be better off without him. Let me put it that way, though. And so will the future.

We share a vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and insecurity.

That country has a right to defend herself. And as she does so, I urge that their government, the Israeli government, make sure that there is a path to peace as she secures her homeland. But they've got to keep in mind the need that there's got to be a peaceful solution at some point.

But there needs to be a focused, coalition effort in the region against peace — I mean, against terror for peace.

I was a little discouraged — not discouraged — I was quite discouraged at the end of the 2000 campaign to see tons of dollars flowing into the political campaign at the last minute, on these so-called independent groups, and we don't know who was funding them.

We don't take a bunch of polls and focus groups to tell us what — to how to, to how to — to what we ought to do in the world.

I talked about making the death tax permanent, so that Rolf can pass his assets to a family member, if he so chooses.

And I don't want Congress messing with the budget.

I understand that the unrest in the Middle East creates unrest throughout the region.

There's nothing more deep than recognizing Israel's right to exist. That's the most deep thought of all. ... I can't think of anything more deep than that right.

Some of what needs to be done didn't require law. I'm glad you brought that up. We just got 245(I) passed in the House of Representatives. Hopefully, that will come out of the Senate quickly. That's a step toward — that's a good reform, is one that I support. I also cautioned President Fox at the time that there will be no blanket amnesty in America. I don't think the will of the American people are for blanket amnesty.

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

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

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

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

You know, I remember campaigning in Chicago and somebody said, would you ever spend a deficit? And I said, only if we're at war or we had a recession or there was a national emergency. Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta.

And so here's our goal, here's the goal by which we'll be measured — here's the goal which I'll be measured first, and then John will definitely be measured if I'm measured.

As a result of hardening the homeland against a bioterrorist attack with first-time responders, our neighborhoods will be ultimately safer for crime.

We think that the collective wisdom of those who own their land is a benefit to the nation; that when individuals make proper choices because they own their own property, that all those decisions in a collective way makes better environmental policy, better land use policy than if it was dictated from a central source of people, many of whom have probably never been on the land.

I understand how risky agriculture can be. It wouldn't be so risky if we could control the weather. That's one of the things we haven't figured out how to do yet. It wouldn't be so risky if we could make it rain all the time. There would be hay to feed the cows. Somehow, that doesn't happen all the time. I know.