For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 19, 2002
Remarks by the President at Missouri Republican Party - Victory 2002 and Talent for Senate Dinner
America's Center
St. Louis, Missouri
6:28 P.M. CST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Well,
thanks for such a warm welcome. It's always good to have a
good introducer. (Laughter.) Bucky is my favorite
uncle when I'm in St. Louis. (Laughter.) He's my
favorite uncle all the time; he's a fabulous man. Thanks,
Buck. And I like to call Sam Fox, "Foxy." Foxy, I
didn't realize you were so eloquent. (Laughter.) But I thank
you for the leadership and I want to thank you all for coming
tonight. This is a magnificent crowd here to support the
next United States Senator from Missouri, Jim
Talent. (Applause.)
I appreciate Jim and I appreciate the fact that he's a family man.
Like me, he married above himself. (Laughter.) So
I appreciate Brenda, it's an honor to meet the three children today,
and it's an honor to meet your mother, Brenda. I got a
report from my homefront, as well -- I married
really well. (Laughter.) Laura is doing great,
and I'm so proud of her, she's made a great First Lady for the
country. (Applause.)
I want to thank the members of the Missouri delegation who are
here, starting with the Senior Senator, Kit Bond. Thank you
for coming, Kit. (Applause.) I appreciate his leadership on
a lot on important issues. Take election
reform -- he's making sure that we encourage
people to vote, but he's working hard to make it tougher to
cheat. (Applause.) Half of the senators
understand what he's trying to do. It seems like one out of
the two senators from Missouri understand that. (Applause.)
I want to thank the members from the congressional delegation here
as well, Todd Akin, Roy Blunt, Jo Ann Emerson, Sam Graves, Kenny
Hulshof. These are fine, fine members of the United
States Congress, and I'm proud to serve with
them. (Applause.)
I want to thank all the members of the Republican Party who are
here. I particularly want to thank the grassroots activists who man
the phones and sign all the letters and get out of the
vote. I want to thank you for your hard work in
2000. I want to thank you for your hard work that you're
fixing to do in 2002. (Applause.)
I'm here to support as strongly as I possibly can this good man to
become the Senator -- the next Senator from
Missouri. And I do so for a reason, and it starts with the
quality of the individual. He is a quality person, who's got
the right values. (Applause.)
He is a steady man, and he is an experienced person who will bring
good judgment to the United States Senate. And let me cite
some of his qualifications. First, he has been in Washington
before. He was there for eight years in the House of
Representatives, where he made a mark of accomplishment. You
know, in that town, we've got some good talkers, and then we've got the
doers.
We've got some people up there who like to hear themselves talk and
others who actually get something done. And that's the way
Jim Talent is, he knows how to get things
done -- (applause)
-- things done not only for the good of Missouri, to get
things done for Missouri, but to get things done positively in a
positive way for the country.
I want the people of Missouri to remember he served on the Armed
Services Committee, and he stood up for a strong national defense when
he was there. And, obviously, that was before we entered
this war. And thank goodness he did stand up for a strong
national defense when he was there, because it enabled us to have a
military capable of accomplishing the first mission we sent them out to
do, which was to destroy the Taliban. (Applause.)
He worked on historic welfare reform. He worked to
change a culture of dependency to one that recognized if you get a job,
if you find work you can be independent from
government. This welfare reform law is an unqualified
success, and I want to thank you for your work on that, Jim.
(Applause.)
We share a philosophy about the role of government. The
role of government is not to create wealth, but an environment in which
the entrepreneur can flourish, an environment in which the small
business person can dream big and take risks and realize his or her
dreams of owning your own company in America. Jim
understands small business.
Today I was on the outskirts of the great city of St. Louis, where
we had a chance to meet some small business entrepreneurs, where I laid
out a way to make the tax structure more conducive to entrepreneurial
development. Jim Talent understands that. And
it's important for Missouri to have a voice for the small business
person in the halls of the United States Senate.
He also understands good tax policy. If you give people
their own money to spend, that increases demand. And when
there's more demand, somebody meets that demand through more
production. And production means jobs. We cut the
taxes on the American people at the exact right time. (Applause.)
And Jim Talent understands that. Some in Washington seem
to forget whose money we're spending. They think it's the
government's money. What Talent understands, like I
understand, it's the people's money. (Applause.)
And one of the things we can't afford to do is to have people in
Washington who don't like the tax cut, because it diminishes the role
of the federal government. I've heard some
rumblings -- and you might have heard them,
too -- that people say, well, gosh, we're in a
recession, we probably ought to not go through with the tax cuts, which
in effect is a tax raise. They're reading the wrong
economics textbook. You don't raise taxes when the economy
is slow. You trust the people with their own money when the
economy is slow. And that's exactly what we did in
Washington, D.C. And that's exactly the attitude Jim Talent
will take when you send him up to represent Missouri in the United
States Senate. (Applause.)
And we need to do more when it comes to tax relief, starting with
making sure that the death tax is permanent; that we say to the
American people, you have the right to pass on your farm or your small
business to whoever you want to pass them on to, without getting taxed
twice by the federal government. (Applause.)
Talent understands that; and we need that kind of thinking in the
United States Senate. He also understands that this nation
needs an energy policy. An energy policy on the one hand
that encourages conservation, that uses our technologies to make sure
we remain productive but consume less. But on the other
hand, that we better find sources of energy at home in order to make us
less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil. (Applause.)
It is in our national security interests that we have a balanced
energy policy. And my, do we need his vote in the United
States right now when it comes to making sure we have a balanced energy
policy. And so these are some of the reasons why you need to
send him to the United States Senate: he's accomplished,
he's a serious man, he's a can-do fellow, he's got the experience to
back it up. And I can't wait to work with him when he gets
elected this fall. (Applause.)
And not only do we have a big job at home, we've obviously got a
big job abroad, as well. We're fighting a
war. And I want to share with you all some of my thoughts
about this war that we fight.
First of all, you've got to know that we're fighting against
Taliban determined group of killers. These are people who
would rather die than surrender. These are people who hate
America. They hate our freedom. They hate our freedom to
worship. They hate our freedom to vote. They hate
our freedom of the press. They hate our freedom to say what
you want to say. They can't stand what we stand for.
And, therefore, we have no choice but to hunt 'em down one by one
to defend the very freedom we hold dear in
America. (Applause.) And that is exactly what
we're going to do. The enemy must have thought they were
hitting a society that was so soft, so self-absorbed, so materialistic
that we would sue them. (Laughter and
applause.) They didn't understand America. They
didn't understand our fiber. They don't understand our
core. They don't know what we're made out
of -- at least, they didn't. Now they do.
I made it absolutely clear when we first got going that if a
country harbored a terrorist or fed a terrorist or hid a terrorist,
they were just as guilty as the murderers who hit us on September the
11th. (Applause.) And now the Taliban knows exactly what I
meant, thanks to a magnificent United States miliary and a vast
coalition, we have routed the Taliban in
Afghanistan. (Applause.) I'm proud of our
military, and I'm proud of our country. We went into
Afghanistan not to seek revenge, but justice. And we went
into that country not as conquerors, but as liberators. We
have freed Afghan people from the clutches of one of the most barbaric,
backward regimes history has ever known.
Later on this week, schools will reopen in Afghanistan, and
incredibly enough, for the first time, young girls get to go to school
thanks to the United States and our
coalition. (Applause.) And so the other day, in
Washington, I declared that the first phase in our war against terror
had ended. We upheld the doctrine of a nation harboring a
terrorist, and the consequences we made clear.
But I want to tell you all, there is more to do. You
see, there are still thousands of al Qaeda trained killers on the
loose. And we will treat them the way they are, which is
international fugitives. We will deny them
sanctuary. We will keep them on the run. We'll
disrupt their finances. No matter how long it takes, we're
going to get 'em and bring them to justice. There is no cave
deep enough for the justice of the United States of
America. (Applause.)
And therefore I have submitted to the United States Congress a
budget which makes our national security the number one
priority. I've asked for the largest defense
increase -- spending on defense since 20 years
ago. And I expect Congress to pass this budget. Because
they've got to understand, if we're putting our young soldiers in
harm's way, they deserve the best equipment, the best training, the
best pay possible. The price of freedom is high, but as far
as I'm concerned, it is never too high. (Applause.)
And so not only do I expect Congress to support our military and
pass this budget, I expect them to do it early rather than
late. The history of the United States Congress is such that
they hold back the defense appropriations bill to the last
minute. That's bad policy. It's bad policy in
times of peace, and it's terrible policy in times of war. I
expect and hope the first appropriation bill to my desk is to fund the
United States military. (Applause.)
There's more to the war on terror than one single individual or one
single network. The nightmare scenario is for our nation to
tire and weary, and allow an al Qaeda organization or an al Qaeda type
organization to mate up with a nation which has developed weapons of
mass destruction, a nation which has got a history of treating her
people poorly, a dictatorial nation. We
cannot -- we
cannot -- allow the world's worst regimes to
develop the world's worst weapons, and therefore hold the United States
and our allies hostage. We owe it to our children and our
children's children to be firm and to be tough, and to say to those
bullies and dictators, we will not let you stand and get away with
blackmailing the world. (Applause.)
Here's the way I view it: history has called us into
action. History demands that this nation honor our
commitment to freedom and our love for freedom. We not only
owe it to the citizens who live in the United States today, to make
sure that our homeland is as secure as
possible -- and make no mistake, we're doing
everything we can to secure the homeland -- but the best way
to secure the homeland is to bring the killers to justice, no matter
where they hide. We not only owe it to people who live in
America today, we owe it to future generations of
Americans. We owe it to children, and our children's
children, so they can grow up in a society that knows the freedom that
we have loved, the freedom so dear to our heart. The world
is looking at the United States of America to see whether or not we
will blink. I want to assure you all that we won't blink,
that we're going to remain diligent and firm in our love, in our quest
and our drive to rid the world of terror. (Applause.)
And I believe -- and I firmly believe that
when the United States leads, we have a chance to achieve long-lasting
peace. I believe out of this evil will come some incredible
good. I believe that by leading this coalition in a firm
way, that we will be able to achieve peace in parts of the world that
never dreamt they would ever see peace. I believe that.
And not only that, I believe that out of this evil will come some
incredible good at home. I believe that the evil ones have
unleashed the great compassion of America at home. I'm
oftentimes asked, how do I help in the war against
terror? People all the time are asking here in America, what
can I do? And my answer is this, if you want to fight
terror, love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved
yourself. If you want to stand up to terror and evil, be a
part of the great compassion of America. Reach out to a
fellow citizen in need. Mentor a child. Walk
across the street and say to a shut-in, I love you, what can I do to
help? You see, it is the momentum, the gathering momentum of
millions of acts of kindness and decency, which will allow this great
nation to stand squarely in the face of evil. And there's no
doubt in my mind that we can achieve that.
The great strength of America is not in our military, although
that's pretty good, pretty strong these
days. (Laughter.) It is not in the
government. It is in the hearts and souls of the American
people.
And so I call upon you all, here in St. Louis, in the great state
of Missouri, to make an extra effort to help somebody in
need. I'm passionate about the understanding that we must
unleash faith in our society -- not a particular
faith, but faith to help change hearts. And so one of the
initiatives that I'm looking forward to working with Jim on, and others
here, is a faith-based initiative that understands out of our churches
and synagogues and mosques come that compassionate help that will
define the face of America. And our government, we must not
fear faith, we must welcome faith as we deal with the intangible
problems that confront every neighborhood in the country of America,
the problems of hopelessness --
(applause) -- the problems of addiction and
hopelessness.
When we fight abroad, we must also fight at home, to make sure the
American promise extends its reach throughout every neighborhood in our
society. And in this country, we can achieve that.
We've got to understand it's not vast programs that save people's
lives; it is saving people's lives one soul at a time that makes a
difference in each of us. Each of us in America can make
that difference. I also believe out of this incredible evil, that our
culture is beginning to change, from one that has said, if it feels
good, just go ahead and do it, and if you've got a problem, blame
somebody else, to a culture that says each of us are responsible for
the decisions we make in life. (Applause.)
That culture begins with moms and dads loving their children with
all their heart and all their soul. That culture begins by
understanding that materialism is shallow and empty, and that to have a
full life, you've got to love your neighbor like you'd like to be loved
yourself. That's a culture that extends to corporate America
as well. Corporate America has a responsibility to its
citizens and a responsibility to make sure all the assets and
liabilities are completely disclosed on one's balance sheet.
Now, we have a chance -- we have a chance,
through the acts of kindness in our country, through the deep
compassion that exists in our hearts, to change the culture of
America. For me, probably the most defining event since
September the 11th was on September the 11th, Flight
93. When United States citizens on this flight talked to
their loved ones on the ground and realized what was taking place in
the nation's capital, they said a prayer, they told their wives they
loved them, they said, let's roll, and they sacrificed for something
greater than themselves.
Americans from all walks of life have got to see the noble cause of
serving something greater than yourself in life. To me, the
spirit on that airplane defined the possibilities of our country and,
man, what a great country it is.
Not only will we win the war on terror to secure the peace in the
world, we will show the world that a diverse nation from all walks of
life and all religions can be compassionate and kind and hopeful for
everyone who's lucky enough to be an American
citizen. (Applause.)
I want to thank you all for coming, and for supporting Jim Talent.
I'm confident he can win with your help. And I want to thank
you all for coming tonight. It gives me a chance to tell you
how honored I am to be the President of the greatest nation on the face
of the earth. May God bless you all. (Applause.)
END
6:51 P.M. CST
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