For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 28, 2001
President Urges Action on Economic Stimulus Proposal
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO FARMERS JOURNAL CORPORATION CONVENTION
The J.W. Marriott
Washington, D.C.
1:32 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you so very much for that
warm welcome. And it is great to be here with the farmers and ranchers
and researchers and business leaders who make America the most
innovative and most productive farm nation in the world.
I am somewhat nostalgic for our place in Crawford. But
I've been a little busy lately. (Laughter.) I
want to thank you for the opportunity to speak about the future of
agriculture and the future of our economy, because they both begin with
your work.
I want to thank Andy for providing this opportunity for me to come
and speak. And I want to thank our Secretary of Agriculture
for doing such a fine job of not only representing farmers and ranchers
here at home, but doing a fine job of making sure our farmers and
ranchers are heard overseas, as well.
She and Bob Zoellick went to Doha. I told them, no
longer are we going to treat our farmers as trading
commodities. Agriculture is the cornerstone of our economy,
and our international agreements must reflect that.
And so, Madam Secretary, thank you for your hard work in
Doha. I appreciate it very much. (Applause.)
The success of agriculture contributes to the strength of this
nation. It is in our national interests, in our national security
interests that we have a strong farm economy. And the
farmers of America contribute to the values of our nation, and to the
generosity of our nation. As we speak, trucks and planes are
delivering American food to the hungry in Afghanistan. Those
rations say, "A gift from the people of the United
States." This gift is made possible by the farmers in our
country, and I want to thank you for it.
The farmers represent and preserve the values of our
nation: hard work, risk-taking, love of the
land. I always like to say people who own their own land
understand the necessity to be good stewards -- every day is Earth Day
if you own your own land. The farmers represent love of
family and love of our country. And farming is our first
industry, the industry that feeds us, that clothes us and,
increasingly, provides our energy.
As Andy mentioned, I was the governor of the state of Texas; it
happens to be the second largest agricultural state in the
country. I understand how tough it is to make a living on
the farm. I understand how much hard work goes into making
the land productive. And I understand how valuable an asset
land is and how important it is that it stay from one generation to the
next. And that's why I'm glad to have signed a law that is
sending the death tax on its way to extinction. (Applause.)
Today, our nation is challenged by a great conflict. We
face new threats and they require a fight on many fronts, both overseas
and here at home. After September the 11th, I vowed to the
world that we would bring to justice those who killed innocent women
and children and men here in America. I also said that any
nation that harbored a terrorist, that aided a terrorist, that abetted
a terrorist would be held accountable. And that's exactly
what's taking place today. Thanks to our military, thanks to
friends and allies, we are destroying the Taliban military and we're
destroying the camps that terrorists use to plan attacks on nations
such as America.
We're meeting our goals in Afghanistan. After all, our
allies now control most of the country. One of the
objectives I laid out in front of Congress is that we would rescue
those who were held, detained against their will. And so I
had the honor last Monday of welcoming two young Baylor graduates to
the White House, part of the humanitarian rescue mission that we pulled
off successfully.
As I mentioned, we're feeding the hungry and providing medicine and
clothes to those poor, suffering, innocent citizens of
Afghanistan. And we're after al Qaeda. The evil
ones think they can hide. They think they can
run. But they're learning that this is a patient nation, a
nation that is determined to smoke them out and to bring them to
justice. And that's exactly what we're going to
do. (Applause.)
I also recognize that we've got a war here on the home front, and
it's important for the American people to know that their government is
doing everything we possibly can to disrupt and deny the enemy; that we
take every threat seriously; that we run down every lead; that we're on
full alert. The thing I'm most proud of is that the American
people will not be intimidated by the evil ones; that they understand
that the intent of the al Qaeda murderers was to freeze our nation in
place, but they don't understand America like I do. America
is resolved. We are united. And we will not
relent until we make sure that those who believe they can harm our
government and our friends are brought to justice, whether it be in
Afghanistan or any other place they hide. (Applause.)
I said when this war first started that the farther away we get
from September the 11th, the more likely it is people will forget that
there are evil ones in the world who want to destroy our country, what
we stand for. And that may be the case amongst some. But
that's not what I've seen in America. This nation is
resolved to do whatever it takes, in whatever theater is necessary, to
make sure that civilization, itself, remains intact; to make sure that
our children and our grandchildren can grow up in a world that is free
and peaceful.
It is the calling of our time, and it's a calling that we
accept. And we're going to win. I view this as a
fight between good and evil, and good will always prevail.
We also have difficulties here on the home front because of our
economic situation. Statistics recently showed that shortly
after I was sworn in as President, our economy was slow and had been
slowing for a while. I made the case, and fortunately,
Congress listened, that a slow economy required immediate action when
it came to tax relief, and they delivered. That's an
important part of making sure that we generate growth, is to let people
keep more of their hard-earned money so they can spend it and not the
government.
And at the same time, in order to address an economic slowdown, we
brought sorely needed fiscal discipline to Washington, D.C. that we
fought for and got a budget that was realistic, that didn't grow way
beyond the means of our government. And by the end of
summer, the economy was beginning to stabilize. Yet the
terrorist attack of September the 11th, no question, dealt our economy
a serious blow.
So while we fight our enemies and states that harbor terrorism, and
while we defend our homeland and our airways, we must take further
action to strengthen our economy. Americans know our economy
was targeted for terror -- by terror. And they're asking us
to fight back, and we must.
These are incredibly tough times for some of our fellow Americans.
Some have lost their jobs. Some have had their hours
curtailed. Many have seen their savings shrink, and small
businesses are struggling just to stay in business. We're
facing tough times, but if we act quickly, I'm confident we can grow
our economy.
On October the 5th, seven weeks ago, I asked Congress to send me an
economic stimulus package, and I outlined the principles that should
guide the plan. First, any plan must help displaced
workers. Any plan must recognize that folks have been
severely hurt by the attack on September the 11th and we must help
them.
Secondly, the plan should speed up the individual income tax cuts
Congress approved last May. The sooner rates come down, the
faster our economy will rise. The plan should provide tax
relief for low-and moderate-income workers to help them through these
tough times. The plan should allow companies and
entrepreneurs to deduct the cost of new investments more quickly to
encourage businesses to grow and to create job opportunities for
Americans. And the plan should reform the corporate income
tax to do away with the alternative minimum tax, a tax that pushes tax
rates up at exactly the moment when corporate America's profits are
going down.
The House of Representatives acted on a stimulus bill, but it seems
to be stuck in the Senate. It is important for the Senate
not to look for ways to spend new money, but to look for ways to create
new jobs. And so I ask the Senate leadership to work out
their differences and pass an economic stimulus plan so they can get it
in conference and get a bill to my desk as quickly as possible.
The American people expect it, and I expect
it. (Applause.)
This country is waiting for action. And in the time that
we have been waiting, more than 415,000 workers have lost their
jobs. Further delay could put more Americans and more
families at risk. So let's move. Let's get the
job done.
I also want to improve our homeland security and our economy by
having a national energy plan. I want to thank the Farm
Journal Forum for emphasizing the importance of ethanol and
biofuels. These fuels are gentle on the
environment. They are fuels that can be renewed year after
year, and fuels that can expand our farm economy. These
fuels are made right here in America, so they can't be threatened by
any foreign power.
Ethanol and biofuels are fuels of the future for this
country. Since the beginning of my administration, I have
strongly supported ethanol and biofuels. And the energy plan
I sent to Congress back in the spring supports biofuels.
The House passed an energy plan. Now it's time for the
Senate to act and pass an energy plan. It's in our national
security interests to do so. I look forward to signing a national
energy bill.
I'm also ready to sign trade promotion authority, to open up
markets for American industry and American farmers. This
authority sends an unmistakable signal to our trading partners that the
Congress and the administration are united on trade. The
House will soon vote on trade promotion authority. I hope
you'll join me in pressing for its passage and, in the process, helping
to restore U.S. leadership in support of free trade.
U.S. leadership matters. We recently helped bring China
into the World Trade Organization, and that is good for American
farmers. It is in our interests, in our agricultural
interests to help feed China. We helped start a new world
trade round in Doha. Our negotiators came back from Doha
with excellent news for American farmers. American farmers
too often lose markets or suffer low prices because of unfair export
subsidies. The Doha Declaration calls for reducing export
subsidies and, ultimately, phasing them out.
For too long, the agricultural market has been rigged against
farmers who play fair. Doha shows the way toward a more
level playing field. That's good news for the world's hungry; it's
good news for the world's most productive food producers -- the
American farmers.
We've got a good stimulus bill, a sound energy plan and it's
important to have a good farm bill, too. A good farm bill
should keep the safety net under our food producers, without misleading
our farmers into overproducing crops that are already in over-supply by
increasing loan rates. A good farm bill should help farmers
help themselves with farm savings accounts. These accounts would help
farmers set aside money in good years to sustain them in hard
times. A good farm bill should promote responsible
stewardship of America's farms and ranchers by promoting conservation
on working lands. A good farm bill should honor our trade
obligations, as we expect our competitors to honor their
obligations. And a good farm bill should be generous, but
affordable. It should honor the budget limits that Congress
has agreed to live by.
You know, we've learned a lot about our country since September the
11th. We've learned that our people are strong, that our
military is very good at what it does, and that our country's heart has
never been more generous and good. And we have much to mourn
and much to rebuild, but much to be grateful for.
Just a few days ago we gave thanks for God's bounty to
America. But we should never forget that it takes the hard
toil on the land to turn that bounty into the food we eat; and that we
share with the world's hungry our bounty. We should never
forget who does that toil. It's the American farmer and the
American rancher.
May God bless you all, and may God bless
America. (Applause.)
END 1:50
P.M. EST
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