The pool report on the veep's trip

TRIP OF THE VICE PRESIDENT - POOL REPORT

October 25, 2006

Flight from Andrews to Cincinnati Muncipal Airport-Lunken Field, wheels up 10:05, landed 11:21.

Along a 12 minute motorcade from the airport to the Phoenix, a banquet hall in downtown Cincinnati, many people came out to wave, a few isolated protestors stood a block from the hall booing Mr. Cheney's entrance and holding signs saying "Bring the troops home" and "Impeach Bush."

The VP went in through tent on side entrance without greeting any supporters. He gave a 25 minute speech to the Cincinnati USA Chamber of Commerce, which the VP's office said is the fifth largest in the nation, representing Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.

He spoke about the gains in the economy and pressed for making the Bush tax cuts permanent, but spent most of his remarks on the war on terror.

He echoed the president's remarks earlier in the day, saying that the White House would be "flexible" in fighting the war in Iraq, but that it would not back down or live by "artificial timelines set by politicians in Washington, DC." He did not make any explicit mention of the campaign for the midterms, but argued that the administration's policies had prevented more terror attacks on the nation in the five years since 9/11.

Speech:
He argued for making the president's tax cuts permanent, saying they had caused a "surge in economic activity," with more than $3 trillion in new wealth into the stock market, more than 6.6 million new jobs created since August 2003, and unemployment, at 4.6 percent, at a rate lower than the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. He said the administration had cut the federal deficit, with tax receipts up $520 billion in the last two fiscal years, which he called the largest two-year increase in history. If the tax cuts do not become permanent, he warned, the child tax credit would be cut in half, from $1,000 to $500, small businesses' expensing would shrink from $100,000 to $25,000, and the tax rate on capital gains would go up as high as 20 percent, and the maximum rate on dividends approach 40 percent.
He added that the administration had a responsibility to hold the line on spending, "and on that score we have more to do." He argued that in order to do so, Congress should give the president a line-item veto "to stop wasteful spending."

VP segued from talking about responsibility to deal with the increasing cost of entitlements to say that the biggest responsibility of the federal government is to protect the nation from terror.
He warned that Al Qaeda was determined "to obtain chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons, to destroy Israel, to intimidate all Western countries, and to cause mass deaths in the United States." In Iraq, he said, Al Qaeda operatives want to "breed chaos, bring down a newly elected government, and gain a foothold for terror, and the oil wealth to finance it."
The increasing violence in Baghdad, he said, is because coalition and Iraqi forces have been conducting "more focused operations" in the most violent areas, and because terrorists want to influence public opinion in the US.

On Iraq:
"We'll be flexible. We'll do all we can to adapt to conditions on the ground. We'll make every change that is necessary to do the job, to finish the job, and to bring the troops home with the honor they've earned. When it comes to our own troop levels, President Bush will make that call, and he'll do it based on what the commanders say is needed for victory. He'll make the decision that best serves the national interest, without regard to poll numbers, armchair generals, or artificial timelines set by politicians in Washington, DC."

He praised the new detainee treatment legislation, which the president signed last week, and argued in favor of the terrorist surveillance program, saying it was "a flat out falsehood" to call it a domestic surveillance or eavesdropping program. He said the information gained from interrogations and surveillance of terrorists has "helped to detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the American people." He noted that there have been attacks in many foreign countries since 9/11 but none in the United States. "No one can guarantee that we won't be hit again. But to have come this far without another attack is no accident. A lot of things can go wrong in a war. Yet candor also permits us to recognize that many things have gone right."

"I want you to know that we're not going to let down our guard. The president is serious about the threat and serious about his duty to protect the country. He will not relent in the effort to track the enemies of the United States with every legitimate tool at his command." He concluded that "the war on terror is a test of our strength, a test of our capabilities, a test of our character."

Air Force one took off Cincinnati at 12:49 pm and landed Andrews 1:48



Kate Zernike, The New York Times