For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 3, 2001
President Discusses Economy at Teamsters Barbecue in Detroit, Michigan
Remarks by the President at Teamsters Barbecue
Teamsters Headquarters
Detroit, Michigan
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
all. Larry Brennan said there hadn't been a President come
to a Teamster rally in 50 years -- only he's been long enough to know
if that's 50 years. (Laughter.) I appreciate it.
Listen, I want to thank you all very
much. First of all, thank you for your hospitality -- and
thank you for being so nice to my wife. (Applause.) Yes, I
brought my wife. (Applause.) You think I travel
without her, you're crazy. (Laughter.) Best
decision I ever made was to ask Laura to marry me. There's a
lot of folks wondering whether the best decision she ever made was to
say, yes. (Laughter.)
But we are honored to be here on Labor Day
to celebrate the American worker. And it's a good place to
be, right here in Michigan, where people work hard -- (applause) --
with the Teamsters, who made an historical record of setting the
example of how to work hard.
I want to thank the working families who
are here to greet us. And I want to thank the working
families all across America, who make our nation unique and
different. I mean, we're different because our folks aren't
afraid of hard work, and they know what it means to support family, and
they know what it means to make their communities better.
So thanks for having us and giving us a
chance to celebrate. I appreciate the officials who are
here, your Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and the Mayor of the great
city of Detroit, all out here to say a few nice words to the President
-- it makes me feel good on Labor Day. (Applause.)
I also want to thank Bill Black for his
hospitality and the leadership of this Local for letting me
come. (Applause.) Some folks might have thought
they took a risk inviting a Republican here, but I stand before you --
I stand before you as a proud American, first and
foremost. (Applause.)
And I'll tell you another proud American
is traveling with me, and we just came from the Green Bay, Wisconsin
area, and Doug McCarron is the President of the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners. Where's Doug? There he
is. (Applause.) He gave them a stem-winder this
morning. But we were there to celebrate the carpenters of America, as
well.
And I understand we don't necessarily
agree on every single issue; but we agree to listen. And I
agree about this: that you've got a good man running the
Teamsters in Jimmy Hoffa. (Applause.) I don't
know if that will help him or hurt him in his reelection
campaign. (Laughter.) But let me tell you
something about him. Like Doug, if he's got an issue, he
brings it forward in a straightforward way with the union workers --
with the union workers in mind.
And we listen. We
listen. Ours is an administration that answers the
phone. We don't ask the question, how did you
vote. We ask the question, what's on your mind, is it good
for America. And that's why we're working together on some
key issues.
Let me tell you another thing about Jimmy
Hoffa. He's running a good
union. (Applause.) And in an above-board way, in
an above-board way. And make no mistake about it, people are
beginning to notice, particularly in Washington,
D.C. (Laughter.)
Now, let me tell you, I'm a little
concerned. I'm proud of our workers; I'm concerned about the
fact that our economy is just bumping along. This is a Labor
Day where we can't celebrate a booming economy. For the last 12 months
-- let me repeat -- for the last 12 months the economy has been way too
slow. And people are hurting. And people are
suffering. And there are families who wonder about how
they're going to feed their kids, and I understand that and we've got
help in Washington.
But the best thing we can do is ask the
question, how do we make sure our economy grows. And I came
up with this answer: our economy can grow best when we give
people their own money back; when we give the hard-working Americans
their own money in the form of rebates, so that you spend
it. And that's what's going to help this economy
rebound. The federal government must keep a lid on spending
and remember that when the American consumer spends, it is the best way
to kick-start a soft economy.
The biggest threat to economic vitality
and economic growth is if Congress over-spends. And that's
why I'm glad to have Peter Hoekstra on my side. He not only
supported tax relief for the American families, he understands that
Congress and Washington should not over-spend.
Now, I came in, I saw a sign that said,
thank you for the rebate, Mr. President -- as if that's my money to
give back. But the person holding the sign, I appreciate the
thanks --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: It's my
money.
THE
PRESIDENT: Yes. It's not the government's money,
it's the hard-working Teamsters' money, it's your money to begin
with. (Applause.)
There's another issue that we're working
on. And Jimmy Hoffa was on national TV yesterday talking
about it. And that's energy. He understands good,
sound energy policy means jobs for American workers. And if
we run out of energy, if we become more beholden to foreign sources of
energy, it's going to be hard on the working families in
America. So he stood strong, as did Doug, with our
administration as we developed the first energy plan in a long period
of time for this government.
Now, energy means we've got to conserve
better, and we will. But it also means that when we can find
exploration activities in our own country, it makes sense to do
so. It not only means independence, it means jobs. And I
appreciate the leadership that Jimmy Hoffa took on good, sound energy
policy in America. (Applause.)
We're working hard on good education
policy. One of the reasons I like to come to picnics like
this is people bring their families. They bring their
families to say hello to the President, they bring their families
because they want to celebrate their off days with their kids. That's
what I like. And I understand a lot of folks in this
audience understand the most important priority you have -- and not
necessarily driving a truck -- but if you have a child, it's to love
your child with all your heart and all your soul. The most
important thing you can do. (Applause.)
It doesn't matter what your job is, what
your political party is. If you're a mom or a dad, your most
important job is to love your child and let them know that on an
everyday basis. In order to make sure America works the way
we want it to, we've got to have an education policy that starts at
home, with moms and dads setting a good example for their children,
surrounding their children with love, giving their children
confidence.
And then we've got to make sure we've got
a public school system that works. And that's why we're
proposing education reform that insists upon local control of schools,
but at the same time that says, we're going to measure to find out
whether or not children are learning to read and write and add and
subtract. And if they are, we're going to praise the
teachers.
But if we find schools that won't teach
and won't change, we'll demand something different. There
are no second-rate children in this country called America, and there
are no second-rate dreams as far as I'm
concerned. (Applause.)
We're going to be focusing on the economy
and education. And another issue I'm focusing on is
security. And for those of you who serve the United States
in the military, I want to thank you for your service. For
those of you who have got relatives in the military, let me assure you
I understand a strong military is needed to keep the
peace. (Applause.)
And, finally, we'll be talking about
opportunity. Opportunity not only means good education,
opportunity means not only letting people keep their own money so you
can spend it, so you can make the decisions for your
families. But opportunity means also understanding there are
people in our society who hurt.
And, therefore, in order to make sure
people realize the American Dream is meant for them, that we must rally
the great compassion of America. And oftentimes that's found
in our churches and synagogues and mosques. And our
government must not fear institutions of faith that exist to love a
neighbor, just like you'd like to be loved yourself. We
shouldn't resist faith-based programs -- we ought to welcome them, we
ought to encourage them, we ought to spread them out in neighborhoods
so nobody feels left out in America. (Applause.)
I was walking in the audience here and
somebody stuck out their hand and said, Mr. President, I pray for
you. I can't tell you how good that makes me
feel. They didn't say, let me check your voter registration
card -- (laughter) -- they said, I'm praying for you.
And that speaks to the greatness of our
country, I want you to know that; that ours is a nation of people on
bended knee. Ours is a nation that's got great
values. One of the values is hard work; another value is
family; and another value is faith. We're a nation where
you're free to choose.
But there are a lot of faithful people in
America, and that's what gives me great hope for the future of this
country. I know we can work our way out of the economic
doldrums we have. But I also know that we can love our way
out of the problems we find in our neighborhoods, in our communities.
And my job as your President is to set a
tone that will encourage the very best from each citizen. My
job as the President is to lift our sights and raise our
spirits. And my job as the President of the United States is
to set an example for which you'll be proud.
I accept the challenge. I'm
honored to be here as your President. Thank you for your hospitality
and may God bless you all. May God bless
you. (Applause.)