For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 11, 2002
Remarks by the President at Scott Mccallum for Governor Reception
The Pfister Hotel
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
6:10 P.M. CST
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you,
Tommy. Earlier today, Tommy stood up and said, you know, my
heart is in Wisconsin but I've got an address in
Washington. I've got bad news for you,
Tommy. (Laughter.) You're not going to change
your address for a while. (Laughter and applause.)
Tommy is doing a fabulous job. People of the country are
getting to know what the people of Wisconsin already know, is that if
you give a man a tough job, he can handle it, and I appreciate your
leadership. (Applause.)
And I'm proud to be here for Scott. I hope the people of
Wisconsin send this man back for four more years as the
Governor. (Applause.) And there's a reason
to: in a short time, he's got a strong record of leadership;
he's not afraid to lead. You know, when times get tough in
the political arena, sometimes you find those who duck or you find
those who stand up and lead the people. And that's exactly
what Scott has done, and I appreciate his leadership. He's
following a good man. There's been 15 years of strong
leadership in this state. And when he gets reelected, there
will be four more years of strong leadership in the state of
Wisconsin. (Applause.)
I want to thank you all for coming to help. You can't
win elections unless the people are with you. And this huge
crowd shows that something's happening here in Wisconsin that's
positive for Scott's campaign.
I also want to thank all of you who worked hard to help me get
where I am. I know I couldn't have won without the hard work
of citizens all across our land, people willing to man the precincts
and blow up the balloons and make the phone calls and it's an honor to
be in the room with so many who worked so hard, and I want to thank you
from the bottom of my heart. (Applause.)
And I appreciate Laurie, the First Lady of the state of Wisconsin.
Her steadfast support of Scott, she brings a lot of class to the office
of First Lady. Where are you, Laurie? (Applause.)
I know something about good
wives. (Laughter.) The people of the country now
understand why I married Laura. They're a little confused
about why she married me. (Laughter.) But I can't
tell you how proud I am of Laura Bush, she has done a fabulous
job. (Applause.)
It's my honor to say hello tonight to the Lieutenant Governor of
the state of Wisconsin. Thank you for coming,
Governor. (Applause.)
I'm traveling today with members of the Wisconsin congressional
delegation, a fine group: Green and Petri, Ryan,
Sensenbrenner. I'm looking forward to visiting with them on
the airplane, going back to Washington. But you've sent four
fine representatives to Washington, D.C., and I'm proud of their
service. Thank you all for coming. (Applause.)
I want to thank members of the legislature for being
here. The Speaker is here, I understand, and I want to thank
you all for coming. You know a good man when you see
one. (Applause.)
I want to thank Rick Grayber the party chairman, and all of you who
are involved with the Republican Party of the state of
Wisconsin. Thank you for your hard work and thank you for
what your fixing to do, which is to turn out the vote next November, to
make sure this guy gets in. (Applause.)
And I appreciate Craig, and the leadership and all the
vice-chairmen who worked so hard to make this event incredibly
successful.
You know, I was watching how Scott handled the budget issue here in
Wisconsin. And he's handled it the way you'd want any leader
to handle it: to stand up and make tough decisions, to not duck
them. He proposed a budget that recognizes that when times
are bad, you don't raise taxes on the working
people. (Applause.) That if times are lean, you
do what families do, you pare back a little
bit. But he also set clear priorities. To me, the
most important job of any governor is to make sure the public school
system of a state is sound and healthy, to make sure children from all
walks of life get educated. And in the budget he proposed,
public education is the number one priority for the citizens of
Wisconsin. (Applause.)
I understand he's proposed an energy plan. That makes a
lot of sense. The state of Wisconsin has an energy plan; the United
States of America needs an energy plan, an energy plan that encourages
conservation but an energy plan as well that understands that if we
rely upon foreign sources of crude, we could have problems in the
future. We need a plan that not only saves energy, but finds
more energy to become less dependent on foreign nations. It
is in our national security interests to do so.
(Applause.) And that includes alternative fuels, like
ethanol. (Applause.) We've got some corn boys
here. (Laughter.) Behave yourselves back
there. (Laughter.)
Scott signed into law Wisconsin's senior care
program. And that's important. Because it
provides prescription drug relief to over 200,000 Wisconsin
seniors. Today, I had the privilege of laying out a health
care speech, a health care strategy. And included in my
speech was the need to make sure we reform Medicare so that seniors
have got prescription drug coverage. (Applause.)
As a result of Scott's leadership, Wisconsin is making great
strides toward making sure seniors have got prescription drug
coverage. No, this guy has got a strong record. A
record of leadership, a record of accomplishment, a record that
Wisconsins need to be proud of. You've got a steady man
here, a good man, a solid man who deserves four more years in
office. (Applause.)
I had the high honor of going before the Congress for my State of
the Union address. And in my address I said that we're at
war and we're battling a recession, but the state of this union has
never been stronger. (Applause.)
When the enemy attacked on September the 11th, they made a huge
mistake. They thought they were attacking a weak nation, a
nation that was undisciplined, a nation so materialistic that we would
put self above sacrifice. I said in my speech earlier -- or
last fall, that if you harbored a terrorist, if you fed a terrorist, if
you hid a terrorist, you're just as guilty as a terrorist and the
Taliban has found out exactly what I
meant. (Applause.) And so have hundreds of al
Qaeda terrorists.
We're making great progress in the first theater on our war against
terror. You know, I unleashed the might of the United States
military with all the confidence in the world that they would get the
job done and, my, have they performed
brilliantly. (Applause.)
For those of you with relatives who wear the uniform, I want to
thank you on behalf of a grateful nation. I sent a budget to
Congress that recognized a couple of things. One, that the
price for freedom is never too high. And, secondly, those
who wear our uniform deserve the best equipment, the best training, the
best support and another pay raise. (Applause.)
It is a large budget increase, because it recognizes that the war
on terror is just beginning. In the caves in Afghanistan,
we've discovered the fact that the enemy desired weapons of mass
destruction, trained hundreds of potential killers that are now spread
around the world. It reminds us that even though distance
has passed since September the 11th, we've still got a mighty task
ahead of us. And the task is so vital and so important, it's
so important that our nation continue to lead this vast coalition,
because we fight for freedom, we fight for the liberties that we've
taken for granted for a long period of time. We must stand
up to terror now, in order to make sure our children and grandchildren
can grow up in a peaceful world. (Applause.)
And our terrorists -- and the threats to America not only are from
the terrorist organizations that hate freedom and kill in the name of
religion; our mission also includes countries which develop weapons of
mass destruction, nations with a history of brutality. If
they're ever able to mate up with terrorist organizations, the free
world will be threatened. And this President is not going to allow
regimes such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea to threaten our way of
life. (Applause.)
I appreciate the unity of this nation. I appreciate the
unity in Washington, D.C. Republicans are patriotic,
Democrats are patriotic. We're united in our resolve. The
world has been amazed at the determination of this
country. The world is seeing what we're really made out of.
You know, to me, one of the most defining moments of this war on
terror came when some fellows were on a telephone on an airplane on
September the 11th, they said a prayer, they told their wives they
loved them, and they drove a plane into the ground to save others'
lives. It's the ultimate
sacrifice. (Applause.) It's such a statement, a
powerful statement, of what it means to defend freedom.
Every morning, I'll go into the Oval Office and I read a threats
assessment which tells me the enemy is still trying to
come. And I want to assure you all that we're doing
everything in our power to protect innocent life in
America. The FBI is on full alert. Listen, we're
running down every lead, every hint; every opportunity we have to
disrupt potential attack, we're taking. Our law enforcement
officials are working overtime and I'm really proud of what they're
doing.
We've got a plan headed by Tom Ridge that focuses on bioterrorism
and airport security, border security. We now know who's
coming in our country and who's leaving our country, so we make sure
people don't slide in who want to harm us.
This government is on full -- is on full alert, and I'm proud of
the way the federal government has responded and I'm proud the way the
Congress is going to fund our homeland security efforts. But
make no mistake, the best way to secure America is to find them and
hunt 'em down, no matter where they hide, and bring them to justice,
and that's exactly what we're going to do. (Applause.)
We've got a big challenge here at home, and that is people hurt
because of the recession. People hurt because when the enemy
hit us, it caused the economy to slide. And people lost
work. And so long as people are out of work, I hurt for
them.
And so I proposed an economic stimulus plan that says to the
Congress, let's take care of the unemployed by extending unemployment
benefits, and let's help them with their health care. But
always remember, folks in America don't want an unemployment check,
they want a permanent paycheck, so let's create more jobs by creating
an environment in which people are willing to risk
capital. Let's cut taxes on investment and on equipment and
plants, so that people who employ people will have more cash to do so.
(Applause.)
The House passed a good bill. It seems to have died in
the Senate. Let's get it out of the Senate. Let's get a
jobs package out of the Senate so people can get back to work in
America. An energy plan means more jobs. Trade means more
jobs. We need good farm policy out of the United States
Congress to help us with jobs.
I ask the Congress to think about one thing when it comes to
economic policy, and that is jobs. Jobs provide dignity;
jobs provide hope; jobs are essential to the future of this
country. (Applause.)
The amazing thing that's happened to this nation after September
11th is, out of the terrible evil has come some good. Out of
the evil has come some amazing compassion and kindness. I
believe we have a chance to work together to change our culture in
America for the better. You know, the culture was dominated
by the if-it-feels-good-do-it era. I believe we have an
opportunity now to welcome a culture that says each of us are
responsible for the decisions we make in life. (Applause.)
The people on Flight 93 were responsible citizens by making the
huge sacrifice they did. Our soldiers are responsible
citizens. You know, I'm asked all the time, what can I do to
help in the war against terror? Well, you've probably
learned by now, I don't believe there's many shades of gray in this
war. You're either with us or against us; you're either evil
or you're good.
The best way citizens in America can fight evil is through acts of
kindness, is to do some good in your community. It doesn't
have to be much. One can just walk across the street to a
shut-in and say, I care for you, or, I love you, or, what can I do to
help? That's an act of kindness.
Or you can mentor a child. You know, we've got thousands
of sons and daughters whose parents are in prison in America, people
who wonder whether or not the American experience is meant for
them. In order to help fight evil, I hope people become
mentors to one of those children, put your arm around them and say, I
love you a lot and America is meant for you.
There are all kinds of ways that all of us can help make our
communities much stronger. And a way to usher in a new
period of responsibility is to remember that not only are we
responsible for loving our children, not only is our most important
responsibility in a responsible society is to love your children with
all your heart and all your soul, but a responsible period, a
responsible era says, I want to love my neighbor just like I love
myself.
It's the gathering momentum of a million acts of kindness and
compassion all across America that will stand strong in the face of
evil. It is the acts of generosity by generous Americans as they help
people in need that will send a clear message to the world that the
United States of America will not stand for evil. We will
stand strongly in the face of evil. We will defend our
freedom.
And out of the evil acts of September the 11th will come incredible
goodness and kindness and compassion. And if any country on
the face of this earth can set that example, it is the great country
called America.
Thank you all for coming. God
bless. (Applause.)
END 6:28 P.M. CST
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