What we know about children - Per our Dear Leader

"Is our children learning?"

"childrens do learn."

"I cannot look a mother and father of a troop in the eye and say, 'I'm sending your kid into combat, but I don't think we can achieve the objective.'

"One of my concerns is that the health care not be as good as it can possibly be."

"And one thing we want during this war on terror is for people to feel like their life's moving on, that they're able to make a living and send their kids to college and put more money on the table."

"Because of your work, children who once wanted to die are now preparing to live."

"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die."

"I think younger workers—first of all, younger workers have been promised benefits the government—promises that have been promised, benefits that we can't keep. That's just the way it is."

"We expect the states to show us whether or not we're achieving simple objectives—like literacy, literacy in math, the ability to read and write."

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."

"And if you're interested in the quality of education and you're paying attention to what you hear at Laclede, why don't you volunteer? Why don't you mentor a child how to read?"

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

The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society."

"I do think we need for a troop to be able to house his family. That's an important part of building morale in the military."

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''

"One reason I like to highlight reading is, reading is the beginnings of the ability to be a good student. And if you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams; it's going to be hard to go to college. So when your teachers say, read—you ought to listen to her."

"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet."

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."

"If I'm the president, we're going to have emergency-room care, we're going to have gag orders."

"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun."

"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children."

"The best way to relieve families from time is to let them keep some of their own money."

"As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public schools, and I have met those standards."

"Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis."

"We want our teachers to be trained so they can meet the obligations, their obligations as teachers. We want them to know how to teach the science of reading. In order to make sure there's not this kind of federal—federal cufflink."

"How do you know if you don't measure if you have a system that simply suckles kids through?"

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."

From "The Complete Bushisms" at Slate.