For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 24, 2002
President Speaks at New Mexico Welcome Event
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
2:15 P.M. MDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. It's great to
come to a place where you can see cowboy hats and belt buckles --
(applause) -- boots. Thanks for letting me across the state line.
(Laughter.) I was just raised right around the corner, in Midland,
Texas. (Applause.) So I kind of consider Las Cruces to be kind of
home. (Applause.)
But thank you all for greeting me today, and thanks for the warm
welcome. It is my honor to be here in this beautiful state, in this
dynamic city, to talk about the three great goals we have for this
country; three great goals. First is to win the war on terror.
(Applause.) Second is to make sure that we protect our homeland.
(Applause.) And third is to assure you that we will not rest until our
economy is strong. Anybody who wants to find work must be able to fine
work in this country. (Applause.) We're going to help this economy
grow.
And this is a great place to talk about the strength of America.
It's a great place to come to talk about the fact that even though
we've got challenges, we can overcome these challenges, because we're
Americans. We work hard, we have great values, we're optimistic
people. There is no challenge that we can't overcome. And the people
of this great country understand that as well as anybody else.
(Applause.)
I want to thank my friend, the senior Senator, Pete Domenici. He's
a fine, fine man. (Applause.) Not only is he a fine man, he is a
great United States Senator. And not only is he is a great United
States Senator, he loves New Mexico a lot. (Applause.)
And then, of course, there's the retiring Congressman Joe Skeen who
has brought such class to the office of -- that he has held. We're
real proud of Joe. We're proud of his courage, we're proud of his
strength. (Applause.) We're going to miss him in Washington, D.C.,
but Washington, D.C.'s loss is your gain. He and Mary love this part
of the country, and he's going to have a lot of farewells. This is not
his farewell speech from me, but nevertheless, it's my honor to talk in
front of his constituents and tell him how much we love him and how
much we care for he and Mary. Joe, thanks for coming today.
(Applause.)
Jay, I want to thank you very much for inviting me and this small
entourage I travel with -- (laughter) -- to this very important
campus. It's -- New Mexico State has got a proud reputation, and
you've made it even more proud, Jay. And I appreciate your service. I
want to thank all the folks who helped put this event on, particularly
in this beautiful facility, where I guess the Aggies tend to dominate.
(Applause.)
I want to thank Ruben Smith, the Mayor of Las Cruces, for being
here. Mayor Smith, thank you for your time. Dora Dominguez, the
President of the Greater Las Cruces Chamber helped put on this event,
and I'm most grateful for the Chamber members who are here.
I want to thank very much Sara Misquez, who is the President of the
Mescalero Apache Tribe, who is with us today. I appreciate Jesus
Segura, who is the Mayor of Sunland Park. I want to thank very much a
special person who met me out there at the airport, Ophelia Chaffino.
She is a USA Freedom Corps volunteer. She is a foster grandparent who
tutors 4th and 5th year-olds.
Let me tell you why I want to bring up the -- Ophelia and people
like her. Because I understand, and I hope you understand, the great
strength of our country is not our governments; the great strength of
our country is our people. And when people -- (applause.) And people
can make a significant difference in all kinds of ways in the
communities in which they live. The fact that Ophelia wants to mentor
children is a significant contribution.
Oh, you know, some may step back and say changing one life isn't
that much. Changing one life is a lot -- a lot. And I want to thank
the soldiers in the armies of compassion which exist in Las Cruces, all
across New Mexico, and all across our country, for working hard to make
our society a compassionate and decent place. Where are you, Ophelia?
Thank you for being here. Please stand up and wave. (Applause.)
I appreciate so very much Ruben King-Shaw, Jr., who works for the
Health and Human Services Administration, being with us today. Why
don't you stand up, Ruben. I'm going to say something about you.
(Applause.) Ruben is here to make sure that we improve health care for
the people of New Mexico. You can sit down, Ruben. (Laughter.) Ruben
is a good man. I've known him -- I'm proud that he came up and worked
in my administration. He also has got a big heart.
One of the concerns we have is that nearly half of low-income
adults here in New Mexico are uninsured. And that's a problem. And
that's a problem. Most of the uninsured adults are Latinos or
Hispanic. And so what Ruben did is he came to approve an application
that will allow for, the best way to put it is creative financing, to
make sure that 40,000 additional adults in this state are able to get
health insurance; to work with the state and Senator Domenici to
provide a plan so that more of your citizens will be able to have
health insurance. And, Ruben, I want to thank you for taking time off
of your vacation to come and work that plan and implement it so that
the good folks in New Mexico have got a better quality of life. Thank
you for coming. (Applause.)
No, as Pete mentioned, we've got some hurdles to cross here in the
country. We've got some issues we have to deal with. One of the
issues, of course, is our economy. When I came in the country was
beginning a recession. It's just a fact. We had three quarters of
negative growth. And then the terrorists hit us, and that affected our
economy. And then something bubbled to the service that had been
brewing for a while. We found out some of our citizens wanted to cook
the books. Some of our citizens didn't feel like they could do it the
honest way. They had to try to slide one by us. Corporate scandals
erupted.
We've had three major challenges to job creation in the country.
But you need to know we're going to deal with it, and we're going to
deal with it in a strong way. My view is the role of government is not
to create wealth, but the role of government is to create an
environment in which small businesses and entrepreneurs and farmers and
ranchers can prosper, so we can create jobs around the country.
(Applause.)
And one of the things we did together, and I'm talking about
Republicans and Democrats, is we took a page out of this text book,
that said, if you want to try to encourage job creation, if you want
the economy to grow, you let hardworking people keep more of their own
money. (Applause.) Pete and I and Joe have read that textbook. Some
in Washington haven't. (Laughter.) We understand if you let a person
keep more of their own money -- by the way, you notice I don't say,
keep more of the government's money. It's not the government's money
we're talking about, it's the people's money. (Applause.) If people
keep more of their money, it means somebody is going to demand a good
or a service. And if somebody demands a good and service, somebody is
likely to produce that good or service, and when somebody produces that
good and service, somebody's more likely to find work. The tax relief
that we passed happened right at the right time. And for the sake of
economic vitality and job creation, we need to ma ke the tax relief
permanent. (Applause.)
And at the same time, my job is to work with fine members like
Senator Domenici, and make sure that we don't overspend. We want to
make sure that we're fiscally responsible. That doesn't mean that we
can't send priorities, and fund those priorities, and we will. But as
Pete will tell you, every idea is a good idea in Washington, no matter
what it costs. (Laughter.) My job is to make sure that the good ideas
that meet our priorities are funded, like fighting and winning the war
on terror, protecting the homeland, and taking care of people who can't
themselves, and education our children. Those are the priorities.
(Applause.)
We need to work together -- when they get back out of their break
and when they get back to Washington, they need to work to put some of
our construction people back to work, by passing a terrorism insurance
bill, one that will allow large-scale construction programs to go
forward that aren't going forward because they can't get insurance
necessary to cover a possible terrorist attack. And by the way, the
bill ought to be more worried about the hard-hats than the lawyers.
This ought to be a bill that is aimed to help the working people.
(Applause.)
We need to make sure that we've got pension reform. A lot of you
all have got assets tied up in what they call 401(k)s or IRAs, but if
you're in a 401(k) and you're working for a company and the boss sells,
you ought to sell. By the way, I've just signed in a new law, that
type of provision. It says, what's good for one is good for all. If
it's good for the head man, it ought to be good for everybody else
working for the company. (Applause.)
But we also need to have a law to allow people to diversify. We
shouldn't force people who work for a company to get company stock to
have to stay in that stock forever. After a reasonable period of time,
they ought to be able to diversify their portfolio. They ought to get
sound investment advice, and they ought to get reports on a quarterly
basis, not an annual basis. In order to make the economy stronger, we
need to have pension reform on behalf of the workers of this country.
Thirdly, I just got a new bill that will allow me to encourage
trade. Let me explain my position on trade, and I'll start with
something that's dear to the people of this part of the world, and
that's agriculture. The good news for America is, we grow enough food
to feed ourselves. That's good news. Imagine what it would be like if
we didn't grow enough food to feed ourselves, if we had to go around
the world asking for food. We'd be a little more vulnerable as a
nation.
It's good for our national security that we've got enough food to
feed ourselves. But we've got more than we need, because we're the
best in the world at growing things. Our farmers and ranchers are the
best in the world. (Applause.) And if you're the best in the world at
something, you ought to encourage it. And so, therefore, my job is to
open up markets for U.S. agricultural products. It is the best way to
allow our producers to make a living. It is in our nation's interest
we do so.
And people say, well, of course, he's going to say that, but that
hasn't been the way it's been. And I understand that. I know there's
some skepticism about level playing fields. And I know a lot of the
farmers and ranchers, and some from other industries, have said, well,
we've heard that song and dance before. But you've just got to know
how I think -- if you're good at something, we're going to promote it.
And we ought to start from our strength when it comes to enhancing job
creation and creating wealth through trade, and that is agriculture.
And let me just give you one example of what I'm talking about. We
grow a lot of chickens here in America. (Laughter.) Well, we do.
(Laughter.) And the Russians decided they were going to -- they
thought about buying our chickens. Then we got the chickens moving,
and they changed their mind. And I talked to President Putin quite a
bit about that. So one time at one of our press conferences, he said,
listen, our relationship has changed so much, we're no longer talking
war, we're talking chickens. (Laughter.) Two days ago, our Secretary
of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, announced that the Russians are going to
buy all the chickens they said they would buy. That's good for chicken
producers; it's good for hog producers; it's good for cattle producers;
it's good for America. It's good for America that we open up markets
to sell our products. It's going to mean jobs for the working people
of this country. (Applause.)
It's common-sense policy. And the other day I had a chance to lay
out a little bit of common-sense policy which affects the folks in the
northern part of your state that Pete and I just talked about. We're
having some serious fires here in America. One of our most precious
resources, our forests, are burning up. And one of the reasons they're
burning up is because we're doing a lousy job of maintaining our
forests, we're doing a lousy job of maintaining our treasure.
(Applause.) We've got to change our forest policy.
Our forest policy now says, hands off. And guess what happens when
you have a hands-off policy -- your forests become diseased, they end
up like a big pile of kindling. And all it takes is one lightning
strike.
I flew over the huge fire in Oregon -- I mean, thousands and
thousands of precious forest lands are burning. For the sake of a
healthy forest, for the sake of leaving a legacy for future
generations, we will change the forest policy of this country to think
the forestlands to keep them healthy. (Applause.)
And finally, I had the honor of signing the most comprehensive
corporate reform bill since Franklin Roosevelt was the President. It's
a long time ago, it seems like. But it was needed. It was when
Republican and Democrats came together. It's a good piece of
legislation which said the auditors will be audited, crooked people are
going to be held to account. We don't want anybody taking advantage of
trustworthy people. For the sake of economic vitality and job
creation, for the sake of confidence in our system, we're going to rout
those out who cook the books. It's no longer going to be easy money,
it's going to be hard time for people who have not upheld their
responsibility. (Applause.)
We've got hurdles to cross, but I'm confident in the future of this
country. I'm confident in our economic vitality, because I know our
people and I understand the entrepreneurial spirit. I know the fact
that we're the best and most productive workers in the world -- we
are. I know that low interest rates and low inflation provide the
platform for economic vitality. We're just not going to rest, we're
not going to rest until people are able to find work, people who are
looking for work can find work.
And I'm not going to rest when it comes to protecting our homeland
either. That's my most important job, is to prevent people from
hitting us again. I say people -- (applause.) I say people -- let me
qualify that -- cold-blooded killers. That's all they are.
(Applause.) There's no other way to say it. There's no other apt
description than to tell you exactly how I think they are, and they're
cold-blooded killers. And they want to kill again -- because they hate
what we love, and we love freedom. (Applause.)
We love the fact that people can worship freely in America.
(Applause.) We respect the fact that people worship freely in
America. (Applause.) They don't value life; we value life. We say
everybody counts in America, everybody is precious in this land.
(Applause.) So long as they're out there, we've got to do everything
we can to protect the homeland. And you need to know there's a lot of
good folks working hard to do just that. Good folks at the federal
level, and at the state level and the local level.
I mean, anytime we're getting a hint, we're acting on it. Anytime
we get a whisper that somebody might be thinking about doing something
to America, people are on it. And we're following every lead. People
are working hard. But I want to take a step further, and I've asked
Congress to join me in setting up a department of homeland security.
And let me explain to you why I made that suggestion.
There are over 100 agencies in Washington, scattered all over
Washington, I might add, that have got something to do with homeland
security. And it seems logical to me that if the number one priority
of this administration -- and by the way, future administrations -- is
to protect the homeland, then we ought to have the capacity to make
that the number one priority of the other 100 agencies. You see, you
can't just say, that's your priority, and everybody snaps to. The best
way to get them to snap to is to put them under one secretary of
homeland security. And that's what we intend to do.
But let me tell you something -- what I'm not going to do is accept
a bill that tries to micromanage the process, tell us who to hire,
where to move them, and how to do it. I worn the Senate -- and, Pete
-- I'm not warning Pete, because he understands what I'm talking
about. He knows who I'm talking about. There are senators who are
more worried about the special interests in Washington than they are
about protecting the people. They're more interested in their turf
than they are about homeland security. And they need to get me a good
bill. (Applause.) I can count on it.
But the best way to protect the homeland -- we're going to work
hard to do this -- we're going to make sure our border -- we need to
know who's coming in the country, what are they bringing in the
country, if they're leaving the country when they say they're going to
leave the country. We need to have a strong first responders
initiative to work with the mayors and the county judges and the
sheriff's departments to be able to respond. We need to be able to
work closely with some of our labs to devise ways to be able to detect
and respond to a bioterrorist attack, for example, or the use of
weapons of mass destruction. There's a lot we're going to do.
But my theory is and my strategy is -- and it's the way it's going
to be so long as I'm the President -- the way to best protect the
homeland is to hunt the killers down one by one and bring them to
justice. (Applause.) And so I submitted a budget, an appropriations
request to the Congress that was the largest defense increase since
Ronald Reagan was the President.
I did it for two reasons -- two reasons: One, anytime we put our
soldiers into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best training,
and the best equipment possible. (Applause.) We not only owe it to
the men and women who wear our uniform; we owe that to their loved
ones, as well. (Applause.)
The other reason I submitted this budget is because I wanted to
tell our friends and allies and enemy alike that we're in this deal for
the long haul. See, when it comes to defending freedom, there is no
calendar that says you've got to quit by such and such a date. That
this -- history has called us to action, and we're going to stay on
course, stay steady, until we have achieved the mission, which is to
make the world free, to defend our freedoms.
Now, I understand that this is a different kind of war, and I hope
you do, as well. You see, no longer are we able to count the size of
the enemy by counting tanks or airplanes or ships. This is an enemy
which hides in caves and then sends youngsters to their suicidal
death. These people kind of run and scatter. So it's a different kind
of mission, it's a different kind of war. But we've got a strategy.
And they understand the strategy is get them on the run, and once we
get them on the run, don't let them light anyplace. And if they do try
to light someplace, bring them to justice. And that's precisely what
the United States is going to do. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A.
THE PRESIDENT: And so my request to the Congress, and I know Pete
agrees with me, is to get the defense bill to my desk as soon as they
get back. We need to get the defense bill signed. See, the Senate
passed it and the House passed it. They need to get the differences
quickly. We're at war. We need to send that signal loud and clear to
our troops and to the world, that we're strongly united in this effort
to win the war against terror. (Applause.)
I say it's hard to count, but I've got kind of an idea of how we're
doing. I say, kind of. We estimate that over 2,500 or -- of the enemy
have been captured by the United States or our friends and allies. And
remember, we've got a huge coalition of countries that are working
together to cut their money off, or to share intelligence, put
pressure. And the -- we've got about 2,500 of them or so, maybe a
little more than that, that are now in captivity, that are no longer in
caves, that aren't able to fight. (Applause.) And just about that
many weren't as lucky. (Applause.)
We will continue to uphold the doctrine that says, if you harbor
one of them, you're just as guilty as those who killed American
citizens. (Applause.) We will be relentless and patient and strong
and determined and wise about how we conduct this war. And we're going
to win the war on terror. (Applause.) We owe it to our children and
our grandchildren, that's who we owe it to. We owe it to them, as
well, to make sure that the world's worst leaders are not able to
develop and deploy the world's worst weapons. (Applause.) We've got a
lot of work to do. But I'm proud of our military, and I'm proud of our
team, and we're going to get the job done. (Applause.)
I believe that out of the evil done to America is going to come
some incredible good. I believe that. I know it's going to happen,
because we're America. I can't imagine what was going through the
enemy's mind when they hit us. They must have thought, that nation is
so self-absorbed and so materialistic, so shallow in its beliefs, so
selfish, that after 9/11 all they might do is file a lawsuit or two.
(Laughter.) They found out different about America. (Applause.) They
understand -- they're beginning to learn the character of this nation.
They and our allies and the enemy understand that when we go into a
country, we go in not as conquerors, but as liberators.
I want you all to tell your children, this great nation, in
liberating Afghanistan, made it possible for young girls, many young
girls for the first time in their life, to be able to go to school.
(Applause.) They're learning that this nation does not seek revenge,
we seek justice. (Applause.) And we will all learn, by being strong
and tough and diligent and compassionate, we can achieve peace.
In the midst of all this talk, in the midst of all this talk, I
want you all to tell your children that this country of ours yearns for
peace -- that we want peace for not only this generation, but future
generations to come. Oh, the hill might be steep at times, it might be
a rugged terrain, like you're used to out here in New Mexico, but we're
going to cross that terrain to achieve peace -- not only peace for
ourselves, but, see, we value life all around the world. When we say
we value life, and everybody counts, it's not just American lives, it's
lives in every part of the world.
I believe we can achieve peace by routing out terror and professing
the Godgiven values -- not American values -- Godgiven values that
matter to everybody. I believe we can achieve peace in parts of the
world that have quit on peace. (Applause.)
I believe out of the evil done to America can come some incredible
good here at home, besides peace. See, ours is a great country, full
of hope. But we've got to recognize there are pockets of despair and
addiction and hopelessness. We've got to understand that when one
hurts, all hurt. We have a chance, I believe, to take the evil done to
America and convert it to great good. Because -- well, let me put it
to you this way. People say, what can I do to help. You know what you
can do to help? You can love a neighbor just like you'd like to be
loved yourself. That's what you can do. (Applause.) '
Oftentimes we look to government, but government can hand out
money, but it cannot put hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose
in people's lives. (Applause.) No, it's those millions of acts of
kindness and decency that take place in America which really and truly
define the true character of the country, and enable me to predict that
out of the evil done to America will come some good.
You see, mentoring a child is part of helping change America for
the better. We can change our society one person at a time. I hear
people say, I can't do everything. Of course, you can't, but you can
do something. You can do something to help change America, one lost
soul at a time. (Applause.)
And that's happening in this country, it really is. People are
beginning to understand there is a different kind of patriotism alive
in America. It's the patriotism that's much bigger than just putting
your hand over your heart, and saying, one nation under God. It's a
patriotism that says, serving something greater than yourself is part
of being a patriotic American. (Applause.) It's a patriotism that
understands that you're responsible for the decisions you make in
life. And if you happen to be fortunate to be a mom or a dad, love
your child with all your heart and all your soul. Tell them you love
them every single day, in order to make America a more compassionate
and more decent place. (Applause.)
It's a patriotism that says, each of us have a responsibility to
the quality of life in the communities in which we live. Help your
schools, go to your churches or synagogues and help feed the hungry.
That's what the patriotism is and it's alive and well, and was best
exemplified on that fateful, horrible day, September the 11th, when
some of our fellow citizens on a flight that was flying across the
country realized the plane they were on was to be used as a weapon -- a
weapon perhaps at the White House or at our Nation's Capital. History
shows that they were on cell phones, and they told their loved ones
they loved them. Some of the last words they said were love. They
said a prayer. One guy said, "Let's roll." And they served something
greater than themselves in life. They set an example for all of us
here in America.
No, out of the evil done to America is going to come incredible
good, because this is the most compassionate, decent, strong nation on
the face of the Earth.
May God bless you all, and may God bless America.
END
2:50 P.M. MDT
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