For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 7, 2002
Remarks by the President at Pickering for Congress Luncheon
Hilton Jackson and Convention Center
Jackson, Mississippi
12:35 P.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank you all, thanks. Thank you. Well,
Chip, thank you very much. It's nice to be back here to Mississippi.
I did bring Laura her coffee this morning. (Laughter.) I don't want
to put any pressure on Trent. (Laughter.) But the good news, it was
in Crawford, Texas. (Laughter.)
I want to thank you for having me. I'm not going to stay for
lunch, I'm going to head on home. I've changed addresses for a brief
moment. I took my office from Washington to Crawford. I look forward
to spending some time outside of out nation's capital. And I'm honored
that the first place that I've come to since I've moved my office was
the great state of Mississippi. It's wonderful to be back here again.
(Applause.)
Laura and I have got a lot of friends here, and we appreciate our
friends. I want to thank you all for coming to help Chip. I'm here
today because I want to make it as clear as I possibly can: you need
to send Chip Pickering back to the United States House of
Representatives. (Applause.)
I want to thank you all for helping. I want to thank you for
contributing not only your money, but your time. I know many of you
are involved with grass-roots politics and that's good, that's how you
win, is to invigorate the grass-roots, like this man is doing. So I
want to thank you not only for what you have done, but what you're
going to do -- which is to man the phones and put up the signs and
turn out the vote. I like to put it this way: when you find a good
one, you've got to keep him. And you've got a good one in Chip
Pickering. (Applause.)
And he's got a fine family. I want to thank Leisha for her
dedication to the Pickering family. I don't know where all the ones in
the red shirts are, but they were at the last place I was.
(Laughter.) Those Pickering boys kept coming, one after another.
(Laughter.) But I love a man who loves his family, and Chip loves his
family.
I also want to thank Margaret Ann Pickering for being here, Chip's
mom. And I want to say something as clearly as I can about why we need
to control the United States Senate. I put a good man up named Judge
Pickering for a higher court -- (applause) -- and the people who
control the Senate maligned this good man's character. They didn't
treat him right. It's not good for America to have this kind of
politics -- take a good person and not treat him well, not give him
the benefit of the doubt. We need to change the United States Senate,
so that we end this kind of politics on the judiciary and allow good
people, good, honorable judges to serve our nation. The Senate did
wrong by Judge Pickering. I did right by naming him to the bench.
(Applause.)
And he has no better friends in the Senate than Thad Cochran and
Trent Lott, and I appreciate their leadership. I want to thank Thad
and Trent for their friendship. When it comes to Mississippi, those
men are pretty good about making the Mississippi case. You just need
to know that. (Laughter.)
One of my favorite things to do -- I'm an early morning guy, I
get to the White House early. And I love to take Barney out on the
South Lawn. He's a Scottish Terrier. The Lotts, Tricia and Trent,
they love Scottish Terriers. And I bring Spot there to the Oval
Office. Spot was born at the White House, so she's quite used to being
in the Oval Office, and respects the new rug. (Laughter.)
And I get there early in the morning. One of my favorite things to
do is to call up Trent -- he's not an early morning guy --
(laughter) -- and share with him my Barney stories. (Laughter.) But
you're well represented by these two fine men. They're doing a great
job for Mississippi and they're doing a great job for America, too.
(Applause.)
And it's great to see Tricia, great to see Tricia. Laura and
Tricia are fast friends and I look forward to telling Laura today when
I get back home that I got to see her buddy, Tricia, Tricia Lott.
I also want to thank Congressman Roger Wicker. He, too, has done a
fine job. He and Chip make a pretty darn good pair for the people of
Mississippi. (Applause.)
I want to thank Clinton LeSueur for running for the United States
Congress. Where are you, Clinton? Go get them; I wish you all the
best. (Applause.) I appreciate so very much my friend, GV Sonny
Montgomery, for being here. Sonny Montgomery. (Applause.) Sonny is a
long-time friend of my family's. We're really proud to call him
"friend." He was a fabulous congressman for the state of Mississippi.
When I'm town there in Washington, I go to church right across the
street -- Sonny always reserves me a spot in the pew there. But I
forgot to say in the earlier rally, he also puts a couple of dollars in
the plate on my behalf. (Laughter.) I'm running up quite a debt to
Sonny. (Laughter.) Keep giving, Sonny, and one of these days I'm
going to pay you back. (Laughter.) Oh, we're even now? Okay, good.
(Laughter.) But, anyway, it's great to see Sonny.
It's great to see Haley Barbour here, the former RNC Chairman, a
man who loves Mississippi and has never left. (Applause.) I want to
thank Phil Bryant, who is the Mississippi State Auditor. Phil, thank
you for being here; appreciate you being here, sir. (Applause.) And
Dick Hall, the Mississippi Transportation Commissioner is here with us,
as well. Thank you, Dick. (Applause.)
I want to thank Jim Herring, who is the Chairman of the mighty
Republican Party of the Mississippi. (Applause.) And Cindy Phillips,
National Committeewoman, I want to thank her for coming, too. Thank
you, Cindy; good to see you. (Applause.)
I appreciate so very much you all coming to help Chip. It's
important Denny Hastert remain the Speaker of the House. Equally
important, it's important that you're represented by this good man. He
is what we call and up-and-comer. He's a star today; he's going to be
a bigger star tomorrow, because he's a man of principle. See, he
doesn't get up there and kind of try to wag his finger to figure out
which way the wind is blowing. He stands on principle. And he stands
strong on those principles. He believes in faith and family and
Mississippi, in that order. (Applause.)
Before September the 11th, he was for a strong military, just like
a lot of folks in Mississippi believe in a strong military. That was
good, because after September the 11th, we needed a strong military.
He's going to work with me to make sure that our military budgets are
sound.
He's a fellow who believes in educating every child -- every
child. We passed a good piece of legislation. Interestingly enough,
it's called the no child left behind legislation. I mean that by the
way, and so does Chip -- no child left behind. (Applause.) The
principles behind that bill are pretty simple and easy to understand.
First, you've got to set high standards. See, if you believe
certain children can't learn, certain children won't learn. So you've
got to insist upon high standards. There's a federal role for
insisting upon high standards because we spend a lot of money helping
people, helping states. So we expect the best. We believe every child
can learn. And if you believe every child can learn, then you ought to
insist that we measure, to see whether every child is learning. If you
believe every child can learn, therefore we ought to know whether
that's the case. If you believe certain children can't learn, then
don't bother to measure.
But if you believe every child can learn, and if you're taking
federal money, the bill we passed says, show us. It's not a federal
government test, you in Mississippi show us whether or not children are
learning to read and write and add and subtract. And if they are,
they'll be praise for the teachers. See, we believe in local control
of schools. There will be praise for those who have insisted upon
excellence for every child. But if you can't show us, then you need to
change.
The reason why we insist upon accountability is not to punish, but
to save lives. It is not to say, these people are bad, it's to say,
what you're doing isn't working. We insist that every child in America
learn. And nobody should be left behind. (Applause.)
I appreciate Chip's support and vision about economic security.
The role of government is not to create wealth. The role of government
is to create an environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish, in
which small businesses can grow to be big businesses, in which people
feel confident about expanding the job base, so people can find work.
The foundations for economic growth are strong in America.
Inflation is low, monetary policy is good, productivity is up, there is
growth in our economy. But so long as somebody who wants to find work
can't find work, I think we have a problem, and need to continue to
work on policies that will encourage economic growth. And Chip
understands that.
You know, when I came into office, we were beginning a recession.
I remember the Vice President saying that clearly. And immediately
the world in Washington start wagging their finger at him, and it turns
out he was right. The numbers, the statistics have shown that for the
first three quarters of my Presidency, we were in recession.
It was during that period that I argued for a tax cut for the
American people. See, in times of recession it's important to let
people keep their own money. And when they keep their own money,
they're going to demand some good or service. And by demanding a good
or a service, somebody will produce the good and service, which means
jobs. That's what that means.
I want to appreciate Chip's support of the tax relief plan. Those
tax cuts were well-timed. And, by the way, inherent in the tax relief
is not just a reduction of rates on income taxes -- it's a small
business vitality program, because most small businesses are sole
proprietors or most small businesses are limited partnerships and they
pay taxes at the individual rate and thereby dropping individual rates,
you've stimulated small business growth.
We've also slashed the marriage penalty and have done a -- gone a
long way toward repealing the death tax, which is punitive on
Mississippi farmers and ranchers and small business owners.
(Applause.) I say going a long way because of a quirk in the Senate
law, after 10 years those tax relief packages revert back to where they
were. And so one way to continue to set the foundation for economic
growth is to have certainty in the tax code.
Therefore, it's important for Mississippi to send somebody to
Washington who understands that, who is willing to join me in making
sure the tax relief package we pass in the midst of a recession are
permanent. I call upon Congress to make the tax cuts permanent so the
American people can plan and grow. (Applause.)
I understand full well what has happened here in Mississippi and in
other communities when they have been deceived by corporate
wrongdoing. Today, I met with two ladies who worked for WorldCom here
in Mississippi. They had their savings invested in the company; they
no longer for the company; they're disillusioned. And they should be.
They should be disillusioned. Anybody -- any time anybody abuses
their positions of authority, by hedging numbers, that's not right. By
not being open and honest, particularly when a shareholder or employee
is relying upon you.
Chip understands that, the Congress understood that. They passed
good laws and this administration is going to investigate, we will
arrest and we will prosecute those who betray the trust of the American
people and their shareholders and employees of American companies.
(Applause.)
Today, I came to Mississippi to talk about liability reform. I'm
worried about what the frivolous lawsuits have done to the health care
systems across America. There is a federal responsibility when it
comes to health care. After all, we write checks for Medicare. Chip
talked about prescription drugs for Medicare. We need a prescription
drug program for the seniors. We need a modern Medicare system. But
we also spend a lot of money. And these frivolous lawsuits run up the
cost of Medicare and they run up the cost of Medicaid and they run up
the cost of veterans programs. It's a federal responsibility. And so
for the sake of controlling health care costs, we need medical
liability reform at the federal level. (Applause.)
I worry about health care systems, not only where the costs are
high, but where people have trouble finding health care they need. We
heard from stories today about OB -- or pediatricians in the Delta.
One fellow came named Kooyer, Dr. Kooyer. He came down to Mississippi
because, as he said, his Christian calling asked him to come down, told
him to come down to help people in need.
There's a pediatrician in some of the poorest counties in America
wanting to provide health care for people in need and he's leaving your
state because the lawsuits are driving him out of the state. You need
to do something about it here in Mississippi and we need to do
something about it in Washington, D.C. And Chip Pickering understands
that. (Applause.)
No, I appreciate Chip, I appreciate his attitude. I hope
Mississippi rejects the politics of putting people in one class or
another and pitting them against each other. That's not how you get
ahead in a -- we've got too much of that in Washington. And one of
the reasons, one of the objectives I've got is to get rid of that kind
of politics, of saying, you know, if you're in this group or that
group, you're either no good or we're going to make you fight in order
to get ahead. That is not good for the country. Chip is a unifier;
he's not a divider. He sets the right tone, as far as I'm concerned.
And that's the kind of tone that will make you proud when you send him
back to Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
I look forward to working with Congress when we get back,
particularly the Senate, to make sure this Department of Homeland
Security that I proposed is set up right. I say that because our
number one priority now is to make sure that the enemy doesn't hit us
again. And they're out there, by the way. These are people that hate
America because we love freedom. They hate what we stand for. They
hate the fact that we worship freely, that all religions are welcome
here in America. They hate that. They hate the fact that we speak our
mind; they hate the fact that we have good political discourse. They
hate everything we stand for, and so therefore we're going to keep
coming.
And my job, and the job of the Congress, is to work together to do
everything we can to protect our homeland; it's to make sure that we do
everything we can to get our agencies cooperating, make sure that the
agencies involved with homeland security, of which there's over 100,
have as their number one priority the protection of the American
people.
And so I said, why don't we put them all under a single department
of homeland security? Look, I recognize I wasn't the guy that ran for
office and said, vote for me, I'm for bigger government. I did say I
want to make government work better. And I think this will make
government work better. And the House of Representatives passed a good
piece of legislation which will allow our administration, or the next
administration, or the next administration after that to put the right
people in the right place at the right time, in order to protect the
homeland.
And I will not accept a bill that hamstrings the capacity of an
administration to do that. And the Senate just needs to know -- and
I appreciate Senator Lott and Senator Chocran's support on this issue
-- that we will continue to argue for what's best for the American
people, not what's best for either political turf or special interest
groups in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
The protection of the people is more important than setting up so
many bureaucratic rules that we won't be able to protect the people.
And so I look forward to getting a good bill out of the Senate, and a
bill on my desk. In the meantime, I hope you realize that there are a
lot of people working hard to protect our homeland. We're doing a
better job of sharing information. We're running down every lead,
every hint. Every time we find out that somebody might be thinking
about doing something to America, we're reacting. And there's a lot of
good people reacting on our behalf. And I want to thank you for that,
and I want to assure you that we take every possible hint seriously.
We do.
I also want to tell you that I know the best way to protect the
homeland is to find the killers, and bring them to justice. We must
hunt them down, one by one, to secure America, and we will.
(Applause.) It's a different kind of war, I know you know that. The
American people have come to understand that, that the first war of the
21st century is different from the previous wars. In the past, we
would follow infantries and formations of aircraft, and fleets of ships
across oceans. We would know where they were, and we'd watch whether
or not battlefields were taken or not.
Now we're fighting individuals who hide in caves and send
youngsters to their death. We're fighting people that move money
around surreptitiously, and attack by means of terror, that's who we're
fighting. But it's still a war. We fight for freedom. Just like the
previous wars we fought for freedom, we fight for freedom now. Which
means that we have to think differently about how we fight the war.
The first stage of any war is to make certain doctrines clear. One
doctrine we made clear, and we're continuing to make clear, is no
matter what the cost, we defend freedom in America. That's why I
submitted a significant budget -- a defense budget, the biggest since
Ronald Reagan, because I understand the price of freedom is high, but
it's not too high, as far as I'm concerned. Any time we put our
uniformed folks into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best
training, and the best possible equipment. (Applause.)
It also is a signal, by the way, the size of the defense bill is a
signal that says, we're in this for the long run. I like to remind
people, there's not a calendar on my desk. Senator Lott will tell you,
or Senator Cochran has been in the office, there's not a calendar in
the Oval Office that says, oh, by such and such a date we're through,
that we'll all go home. That's not the way it is when it comes to
defending freedom and winning the first war of the 21st century. We're
relentless, and we're determined.
And so the first doctrine is, no matter what the cost to defend our
freedoms, we'll pay it. The second doctrine is, if you harbor a
terrorist, or if you feed a terrorists, you're just as guilty as the
terrorists. And the Taliban learned now what we meant. The Taliban
found out what we meant. And I want you all to remind your youngsters
who are here, or remind your youngsters if they're not here, that their
government sent our military into Afghanistan not to conquer a people,
but to free a people, to free people from the clutches of a barbaric
regime which would not even educate young girls. And so for the first
time in Afghanistan, many young girls get to go to school, thanks to
the United States and our coalition. (Applause.)
The other doctrine is, is that either you're with us and those of
us who love freedom, or you're with the enemy. And that doctrine still
holds, too. We've put together a vast coalition of people that
understand the stakes. And the coalition still is strong. I mean,
we're trying to disrupt money, we're sharing intelligence, we've hauled
in over 2,000 people -- 2,000 of these killers. Another 2,000 or
more haven't been as lucky.
The other day, the government of Gloria Arroyo in the Philippines
went after the Abu Zubaydah group. It looks like the head of that
group met his demise. That's the group, by the way, that had captured
American missionaries, the husband of a wonderful lady named Gracia
Burnham was killed. Either you're with us or you're with the enemy.
The Philippines and other countries around the world are denying
sanctuary to these killers. We've got them on the run. We're going to
keep them on the run.
As well, either you're with us or you're with the enemy also
applies to nations which harbor weapons of mass destruction; nations
which have got abysmal human rights record at home, at their own homes,
nations which have not been able to live at peace with their neighbors,
nations which would use those weapons of mass destruction to either
destroy and/or blackmail the United States and our friends and allies.
I'm a patient person. I've got a -- we've got a lot of tools at
our disposal. I believe in consultation with Congress. I believe in
consultation with our friends and allies. But those who have talked to
me know that history has called us to this moment. For the sake of our
children and our grandchildren, we can't let the world's worst leaders
blackmail and threaten the United States with the world's worst
weapons. (Applause.)
(gap in feed) -- is going to come some good. I love to speculate
about what was going through the enemy's mind -- -- what were they
thinking when they hit America. They must have thought that we were so
materialistic, or self-absorbed, or shallow, or so worried about our
own prosperity, our own individual wealth that we were unwilling to
serve something greater than ourself in life; that when the enemy hit
we would just kind of make noise and do nothing about it. They didn't
understand the character of the American people. I do. (Applause.)
That's why I can predict with confidence that out of the evil done
to America will come some good. I know this nation. I know our heart,
I know our determination, I know our resolve. I firmly believe that by
remaining strong in the face of terror, and by remaining committed to
the human values that we hold dear, that we can achieve peace in parts
of the world that may have given up on peace. I believe we can lead
others to realize that peace is possible and peace can happen, and
peace will happen in the Middle East, or in South Asia. And I believe
we can achieve the peace we dream for for our children and our
children's children.
I also know at home that out of the evil done to America can come
some incredible good, because I've seen the spirit of America. I saw
it when I saw the coal miners that were rescued in Pennsylvania. I see
if firsthand everywhere I go. I saw it today with a child who came
out -- 18-year-old girl who came out to the airport to greet me, who,
upon her own initiative, signed up her classmates to mentor children in
need, and fed the homeless, fed the hungry. I saw her in action. I
saw her love and I saw her compassion. It didn't require an act of
government to get her to love a neighbor like she'd like to be loved
herself. She felt the spirit, and she felt the call. And that's
happening all across America. That's what this nation is made out of.
There are thousands of people all across this country who reach out to
a child, and say, what can I do to make sure you understand that
America is meant for you? You see, our society can change and will
change, one heart, one soul, one person at a time.
And people say, well I can't do everything. But you can do
something. You can do something to make the community in which you
live a better place. (Applause.) And that's why I'm such a believer
in the faith-based initiative. Governments shouldn't discriminate
against faith, government should welcome faith, the power -- the
power of faith, whether it comes through the Christian church, through
Judaism, or through Islam, can change people's lives for the better.
And we must welcome that faith in our society. (Applause.)
I started running for office in Texas because I was hopeful to be a
part of a cultural change in America, a change from a culture which had
said, if it feels good, just go ahead and do it, and if you've got a
problem, blame somebody else. I believe the culture is shifting in
America. People are beginning to understand that serving something
other than yourself is an important part of being an American.
And perhaps the most vivid example of that came on Flight 93.
Average citizens were flying across the country that faithful day.
They heard their airplane was going to be used as a weapon, perhaps
against the Capitol or against the White House, certainly against
innocent Americans. They said a prayer, they told their loved ones
goodbye. One guy said, "let's roll," and they drove the plane in the
ground. It is a signal, a symbol of what it means to be an American,
of serving something greater than yourself in life.
No, out of the evil done to America is going to come some
incredible good, because we're the greatest nation, full of the finest
people on the face of the Earth. Thank you all for coming. God
bless. (Applause.)
END 1:07 P.M EDT
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