For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 30, 2002
President Asks Seniors to Get Involved in USA Freedom Corps
Remarks by the President at Florida Welcome
Daytona Beach International Airport
Daytona Beach, Florida
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. I'm glad to be
back in the great state of Florida. (Applause.) I love to come to
states where they've got a great
governor. (Applause.)
As Americans make their
travel plans, more of us need to think about coming to Florida. (Applause.)
One of the last times I came was when I went to the race track
owned by Mr. France, right next door to here, where Theresa's good
husband was driving cars. It was such an honor to be with
Mr. France and his wife, and
Theresa Earnhardt. And may God rest Dale's soul and may
God bless her family, too. (Applause.)
I don't know if you all know this, but you sent a good one up to
represent you in Congress, John Mica. And I appreciate
John being here.
(Applause.) In politics, they've got the talkers and
they've got the doers. John is a doer. I worked closely with
him on an airport security bill that will make sure that when Americans
get on their airplanes, it is as safe as can possibly be.
And I want to thank John for
his leadership and his hard work on this vital piece of
legislation. (Applause.)
I know we've got some from the Statehouse in particular -- the
Speaker of the House Feeney. I'm so honored that people came down from
Tallahassee to say hello to Jeb's little -- big
brother. (Laughter.) I am so thrilled to be here. I hope I didn't speak to long last night.
AUDIENCE: No! (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: I didn't mean to keep people up too late,
but I had something to say. (Applause.) The state
of our union is strong; this is a great nation. (Applause.) We've got some
challenges ahead, but this country is going to rise to the challenges. (Applause.)
We've got a big task ahead, and that is to rid the world of
terror. I know people say, well, what does that mean? Well, it
means that in order to keep America safe, we've got to make it clear to any person who
thinks they want to be a terrorist that this great nation and its
coalition will find you and bring you to justice.
It means that if you
harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you hide a terrorist,
you're just as guilty as a terrorist. (Applause.)
Our mission is more than just Afghanistan. Although,
we've been pretty darn successful there, thanks to the United States
military.
(Applause.) And for those of you who have a loved one in
our military or in the military, I want to thank you from the bottom of
our heart. I'm so proud -- I'm so proud of the men and women who wear our uniform.
And you need to be proud, too. We've sent them into a
tough mission and they've accomplished that mission exactly the way that I hoped
they would.
We routed the Taliban -- and, by the way, there's
nothing that makes me more joyous than to know our great military have
been liberators; liberators of oppressed women and children, liberating people from
the clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of
mankind.
(Applause.)
We're still in that theater. We will be in that theater
with our military until we bring al Qaeda to justice. This
is a dangerous phase of the first theater in the war on terror because
there's a lot of caves.
And we're trying to find people who,
on the one hand, send youngsters to their death, and on the other hand, hide. On the one hand,
they say it's okay for you to go kill yourself. And on the other hand,
they're running and hiding.
But, see, what they don't understand about this nation is we are
patient; we are determined; we are steadfast. We're
going to keep them
running, and one of these days we'll bring them to
justice. (Applause.)
But the mission is more than just Afghanistan and al
Qaeda. We need not be focused on one person, because we're fighting for freedom
and civilized civilization. We fight to make sure our
children and our children's children can grow up in a peaceful world, a world based
upon values that respect dignity of life and the individual -- values.
(Applause.) Universal values.
We fight evil people, people who want to murder, people who hate
America and what we stand for. And that's why we'll be
relentless and steady. The world looks to us for
leadership. If we blink, they may go to
sleep.
That's why we're not going to
blink. That's why we're going to be after
them. That's why we're going to disrupt their
finances. That's why we're going to hold people
account.
That's why we're going to say, if you develop
weapons of mass destruction and you aim and ruin the security of us
or our allies, we will hold you accountable. That's why
this nation is going to stand tall and strong and not relent in the face of
terror.
(Applause.)
My biggest job is to secure our homeland. I walk into
that magnificent Oval Office in the morning and I look at a threat
assessment, where the enemy may try to hit us again. And make no
mistake about it, they'd like to.
My biggest job is to rally
the resources of our government to prevent anything from happening to
the innocent life in America. And I take it seriously, and so does our government. We're
doing everything in our power to seek down leads, to alert people if necessary, to
gather as much intelligence as we can and share it quickly.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's major mission now is to keep
the homeland safe, is to prevent another attack. So to all
the law enforcement officials who are here, I want to thank you very much for your
diligence, your hard work, for keeping your eyes and ears
alert. (Applause.)
Traveling around the country, talking about a homeland initiative
that's going to enhance more spending for -- to fight bioterrorism,
more money for first-responders, like the fire and the police; to make
sure the emergency plans are in place; more money for the health
agencies around the country; more money to make sure that we understand who's coming
into our country and who leaves our country. (Applause.)
They've put us on notice, and we're after them. The best
way to secure our homeland in the long-term, however, is to take this war,
wherever a terrorist tries to hide, and get 'em. And
that's exactly what we're going to do. (Applause.)
I sent a budget -- one of the things a President does is put out a
budget. I sent a budget up. It starts with this
number one priority: If you wear our uniform, you deserve
the best training, the best equipment and another pay raise. (Applause.)
The second budget request I put in there is for homeland security.
And the third is for job
security. (Applause.) I know there are some people hurting in this state. And my interest is to make
sure we do wise things to increase the job base. We're going to help
people with an unemployment check, but what Americans want is a steady paycheck.
(Applause.)
Oh, I know there's been a lot of talk about revenues here and
spending here and all that. Let me just tell you something about
the tax relief plan that you helped us pass. Thank goodness
we passed it. It came at the right time.
If you
want to fight off a recession, if you're interested in job creation,
one of the best ways to do so is to let people keep their own
money so they can spend it and, therefore, create more
jobs. (Applause.)
We did exactly the right thing in Washington, D.C. We
made the exact right decision. I know there are some who have got a
different theory about economics -- that is, if you take more money out
of people's pockets and increase the size of government, the economy
recovers.
That's not what we think. That's not --
and most economists will tell you if you encourage
a tax rise in times of recession, it will make matters
worse.
That's Economics 101. Evidently, some of them up there forgot
to pick up the textbook. (Laughter and
applause.) This tax cut says we trust people with
their own money.
And it also reminds people that we're
dealing not with the government's money, but with the people's
money. (Applause.)
We need to stimulate more economic growth by encouraging investment
in plant and equipment, which means jobs -- and by stimulating
consumer spending by accelerating the tax relief plan, which means
jobs. Jobs is a central core of any stimulus package.
And let me remind you of something else about jobs. In
order to make sure people can find work and the job base of America expands,
folks, we need an energy policy. We need a policy that has
reliable energy for America. Imagine an employer wondering
whether or not they're going to run out of energy. That person is not likely to hire
somebody.
Or if we get tight on energy, the price of energy goes up. It means
somebody is not going to be able to find work. We need an energy policy. We need to encourage
conservation. We need to build infrastructure. And we need to encourage
exploration amongst -- in the United States. (Applause.) A good energy policy
is job security.
But a good energy policy that reduces dependency upon foreign oil
is a matter of national security, as well. (Applause.)
Like I said last night, I have been in awe of the American people.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you! (Laughter and
applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: I'm at a loss for words. I'm
speechless. (Laughter.)
May be hard to believe, after 49 minutes of talking last night.
(Laughter.) But I do want to tell you that this is a
fabulous land, as you know. And we've got a great
opportunity. The enemy hit us.
As I like to kind
of tease the enemy, they must have been watching too much daytime TV.
They thought we were soft; they thought we were materialistic; they
thought we wouldn't fight for what we believed; they thought we would
cower in the face of terror. And my, my, are they
wrong. (Applause.)
Quite the contrary has happened. This great nation is
unified and steadfast. And this nation understands that if
you want to fight evil, you do so with acts of goodness.
There's all kinds of ways, all kinds of
ways, that Americans can serve their communities and their neighborhoods.
And
by doing so, we stand square in the face of evil. We tell the enemy, you
can't get us. You think so, you think you can tear down the spirit of
America, but quite the contrary. We are stronger than we have ever been as
a nation.
(Applause.)
Nobody wishes this evil had ever happened. But as a
result of evil, there's some amazing things that are taking place in
America. People have really begun to challenge the culture of the past that said, "if it
feels good, do it,: to welcome a new culture that says, "I'm
responsible for the decisions I make in life." (Applause.)
This nation has a chance -- this nation, this great nation has a
chance to help change the culture. We have a chance to stand
up for being a mom or dad by just loving your kids more.
We
have a chance to fight evil by walking across the street to a shut-in,
saying somebody cares. We have a chance to say to the thousands of children whose moms or dads and
parents, to match them with a mentor -- who are in prison -- and match
them with a mentor, so these youngsters know there's hope in our
society; that they know there's love.
We have a chance to change our culture for the
better. We have a chance to turn this evil -- to turn the evil deeds and the evil
acts into incredible, long-term good for our nation. I ask
you to seize the moment.
I ask you to understand -- (applause) --
that we've got to be patient, we've got to be steadfast in our drive overseas. And
we've got to be loving and decent and compassionate at
home.
And when we do -- and when we do, we will have proved to the world once again that every time,
good overcomes evil. (Applause.)
It is such an honor the be here, back in Daytona
Beach. And it's such an honor to be the President of the greatest nation on the face of
the Earth. May God bless you all, and may God bless
America. (Applause.)