[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2001, Book II)]
[August 14, 2001]
[Pages 969-974]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



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Remarks at a Fundraising Dinner for Senator Wayne Allard and Governor Bill Owens in 
Denver, Colorado
August 14, 2001

    Thank you all. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. Okay, 
sit down, please. Thank you all.
    Madam Secretary, thank you for that kind 
introduction. You read it just like I wrote it. [Laughter] I'm really 
proud of my appointment of Gale Norton to the Secretary of the Interior. 
She is doing a fabulous job. I think one of the things that people are 
going to find about our administration is we bring some common sense to 
Washington, DC. And Gale Norton brings a lot 
of common sense--common sense--to the Interior Department. And it needed 
a little common sense. [Laughter]
    I'm sorry my wife isn't with me, but I want 
to give you a family report. I'm extremely proud of our First Lady. 
She's doing a fabulous job. She's working on a reading initiative that 
will have a profound impact all across America. Right now she's worrying 
about the two dogs and the cat on our ranch in Crawford, Texas.
    We love our ranch in Crawford, Texas. But I must say, after having 
been in Estes Park--[laughter]--it's good to get out of Washington. 
[Laughter] I love my job. I want to thank all of you here who helped me 
become the President. It's a huge honor. But it's also a--and I like 
going to the Oval Office every day. As you can imagine, walking into 
this great office is--it's hard to describe how I feel every morning.
    But it's also important to get out and see the people, too. It's 
important to keep balance and perspective. We find that on our ranch in 
central Texas, and I find it as I travel the heartland. No better place 
to come than the great State of Colorado, where people are down to earth 
and work hard and adhere to great American values. And I want to thank 
you for the warm welcome I've received today.
    I appreciate so very much traveling today with United States Senator 
Ben Nighthorse Campbell. He is a--he 
is an interesting man--[laughter]--who I'm proud to call friend. He 
brings a lot of class to the United States Senate, and he represents 
your State with a lot of dignity.
    I want to thank the Members of the Congressional delegation who are 
here, as well: Scott McInnis, who just came 
off Mount McKinley today to say hello to his President. And I want to 
thank you, Scott. I traveled today with Tom Tancredo and Bob Schaffer, as well. Both 
of these men--all three of these men are good, solid citizens in the 
United States Congress, and I appreciate their friendship. I appreciate 
their advice. I get a lot of advice from Members of Congress these days. 
[Laughter] Most of all, I appreciate their votes. Thank you all for 
being here.
    I want to thank my friend Joe Rogers, the 
Lieutenant Governor of the State of Colorado, for being here. Thank you, 
Joe. And Mr. Chairman, thank you for your 
leadership. Where is he? There he is, down there. I appreciate you 
taking on the lead. I appreciate you toiling in the trenches. I 
appreciate you make sure Colorado remains in the public--Republican camp 
in 2002.
    I'm here to help two good men get reelected, and I appreciate you 
all's work helping them get reelected. There's no finer Governor in the 
United States than Bill Owens. Jeb Bush isn't all 
that bad. [Laughter] But he's done a great job. He is the kind of fellow 
you want in office because he does what he says he's going to do.
    That sounds pretty simple to people from the outside, but a lot of 
times in the political process, that's not the way it works. A lot of 
times, you have candidates running

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for office who say one thing, and they don't mean it. They go out and 
tell the people all across the State that they're going to do something 
for education, but they really don't mean it, or they can't get it done.
    This is a man who has done in office what he said he would do. He's 
cut the taxes. He's made education a priority. And you need to send him 
back. You need to put him back in the statehouse. Plus, he married well. 
[Laughter] Frances is a great first lady for 
the State of Colorado.
    Bill is going to work hard; I know. And he's going to run on a 
positive agenda; that's what the people want. He told me today on the 
airplane that although he's done a lot for education, he's going to 
continue to stay on education. And we're going to help him with a good 
bill out of Washington, DC, that will give more power and flexibility to 
the States. Education is his priority, and it needs to be his priority. 
It's the people's priority of the State of Colorado.
    And I'm proud to stand up here for Wayne, as well. He's a good man. 
He works hard, and I need him in the Senate. I need somebody who I can 
count on in the United States Senate.
    And Colorado needs him in the Senate. Colorado needs a man who 
understands natural resources and who brings balance to the issue. 
Colorado needs a man who understands energy. Colorado needs a fiscal 
conservative in the United States Senate. Colorado needs a commonsense 
man, and that man is Wayne Allard.
    Let me say one other thing. It's much better to have two United 
States Senators who will have their phone call returned from the White 
House than one. [Laughter] It's much better to have two people working 
on the State's business who can work closely with an administration. 
It's important to have somebody who is an ally in the Oval Office, to 
represent your State. And I view Wayne as an ally, and I think he views 
me as an ally of Colorado. That's important.
    And the voters of Colorado have got to understand the practical 
aspects of how Washington works. And it's going to work a lot better for 
Colorado when you send Wayne Allard back to the United States Senate.
    We're getting a lot done in the Nation's Capital. I can remember 
watching Washington in the so-called days of gridlock and the anger and 
the finger-pointing, and say, ``We can do better than that. This great 
land of ours needs a Government that is more willing to listen, more 
respectful tone, so that when people are coming up in our system, 
they're not discouraged by what they see.''
    Democracy depends upon our citizenry becoming involved. It means 
that those of us who have been entrusted with power must set a good tone 
and a good example. And we're beginning to get that done in Washington. 
Oh, there is still some name-calling and some finger-pointing and some 
gnashing of teeth, but it's getting better.
    And one reason it's getting better is because we're getting some 
things done, starting with a meaningful, real tax cut for the American 
people. I can remember in the course of the campaign people would say, 
``Well, he's just saying it. He doesn't mean that.'' But it's reality, 
and it needed to be reality, because our economy began to slow down. And 
one of the things a commonsense administration does is solve problems, 
and one way you solve the problem of an economic slowdown is give people 
some of their money back. That's called good, sound fiscal policy.
    Today, when we were riding on the road up to Estes Park, I was so 
proud to see a lot of citizens holding that sign up saying, ``Thanks for 
the $600, Mr. President.'' But you know what? It wasn't my $600 to give. 
It was their money in the first place. I think we're finally making the 
point in Washington that the so-called surplus is not the Government's 
money, it is the people's money. And when we've got too much of

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it in Washington, we're going to send it back to the people who pay the 
bills.
    And I want to thank Wayne for his help on repealing the estate tax. 
That tax was punitive; it's unnecessary; and we're finally going to get 
rid of it in the Tax Code of the United States.
    You hear a lot of them talking in Washington about, ``Oh, the tax 
cut might cause a deficit.'' No. What causes a deficit is too much 
spending. And we've got a good budget in place, and I expect the United 
States Congress to adhere to the budget we have in place. And if they 
try to overspend--I know none of the Members up here will--but I can 
assure you, when we get back this fall, if they try to bust the budget, 
you'll have a President who will veto those budget-busting bills.
    There's a new day in Washington, DC. It used to be they'd have a 
bidding contest to see who could get out of town first. Those days are 
over. We've set a responsible budget, passed by both the House and the 
Senate. And I expect Members of both political parties to adhere to that 
budget. It's the best way to make sure our economy recovers: sending 
money back to the taxpayers and having fiscal sanity in the halls of 
Government in Washington, DC.
    We passed an education bill that was one of my top priorities. It's 
a bill that's going to make our schools better. It's a bill that gives 
more flexibility at the local level. It consolidates programs. But it 
also does something that you've done here in Colorado: It challenges the 
soft bigotry of low expectations. It says, every child can learn. And we 
believe that we must measure to determine whether or not every child is 
learning.
    This piece of Federal legislation says, for the first time, if you 
take any Federal money, you, the State, must measure; you must show us 
whether or not children are learning to read and write and add and 
subtract. And if they are, there will be ample praise, but if not, we 
will not stand idly by. We will not continue to fund failure. There are 
no second-rate children in America, and there are no second-rate dreams, 
as far as this administration is concerned.
    Oh, I've heard all the complaints about testing. They say, ``There's 
too much Government if you test.'' But we're results-oriented people. We 
expect there to be a return on taxpayers' money. We want to know, if 
we're spending money on the schools out of Washington, DC, or you're 
spending money on the schools out of Colorado--it seems like it makes 
sense to ask the question, what are the results?
    And then they say, ``If you test, it's racist.'' Folks, let me tell 
you something as plainly as I can: It's racist not to test. It's so much 
easier to quit on inner-city black kids or kids whose parents may not 
speak English as their first language. It's so much easier to shuffle 
them through the system. But those days are gone, as far as this 
President is concerned. I want every child to learn to read and write 
and add and subtract.
    I believe every child can learn in America, and it starts with 
teaching every child to read. And that's exactly what we're going to 
start doing in America. We're going to ask the Governors, like Owens, to 
have a reading program based upon sound science, not based upon some 
feel-good curriculum but based upon what works. Phonics works, by the 
way, and it needs to be integrated into the reading programs all across 
America.
    Ours is the first administration to put out an energy plan. And we 
needed an energy plan. I called upon our good Vice President--and by the way, his health is strong, and 
he's a fabulous Vice President of the United States. He comes from right 
around the corner, Wyoming. And as he likes to say, who thought those 
three electoral votes weren't important? [Laughter]
    But we've developed an energy policy that makes sense for America. 
On the one hand, it says, we can do a better job of conserving our 
resources, and we must. We

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must use the new technologies available, or becoming available, to make 
better use of scarce supply of energy.
    One of the interesting initiatives we've taken in Washington, DC, is 
we've got these vampire-busting devices. A vampire is a--a cell deal you 
can plug in the wall to charge your cell phone. And when your cell phone 
is not on the charger, even though the charger is plugged in, it's still 
eating electricity. So some smart person came along and developed a cell 
phone charger that doesn't eat electricity when the cell phone is not 
plugged in. And so our Federal Government is going to start using these 
devices to set the example, to show that we can be good stewards of our 
Nation's energy. All of us must do a better job.
    But make no mistake about it, we need more supply as well. The State 
of California leads our Nation when it comes to conservation measures, 
but they ran out of energy. They're building 12 energy--12 powerplants, 
and that's good, and we helped to expedite the process to get the 12 
powerplants built. But those 12 powerplants are going to be powered by 
natural gas, and this Nation better have an administration that starts 
asking, ``Where's that gas going to come from if they're going to power 
the powerplants?'' We need more supply available for American consumers 
as well.
    There's a lot of people who don't have faith in our technology in 
America. I have faith in technology. And like many of you in the energy 
sector, you know we can go into parts of Alaska and drill for natural 
gas, for precious natural gas, without destroying the environment. It's 
time to have a commonsense energy policy for the United States of 
America.
    Ours is an administration that told our United States military that 
we would help them remain strong. And it starts with paying our troops 
better, and we have. The budgets we submitted increased pay, helped on 
health insurance, and improved the housing of the men and women who wear 
the uniform. And we're going to do so in the 2002 budget, as well.
    But this is an administration who is not going to needlessly spend 
money. We want to spend money on a clear, strategic vision. We want our 
military to be a military not only that can keep the peace today but a 
military ready to keep the peace tomorrow. And so I've asked Secretary 
Rumsfeld to prepare a strategic vision 
for what our military ought to look like, so when we spend taxpayers' 
money, we spend it wisely.
    And along those lines, I appreciate the support of the Members up 
here who recognize what I recognize, that the cold war is over. It's 
time to discard the treaties that codified the cold war and to develop a 
new strategic relationship with a country like Russia, so we can more 
ably keep the peace. Russia is no longer our enemy. The cold war no 
longer exists. The enemies that the United States face are terrorists, 
rogue nations that will develop weapons of mass destruction and point 
them at us or our allies, cyberterrorists. And our defenses must reflect 
the true threats facing us.
    So that's why I was proud to represent our Nation in sitting down 
with the Russian President. And I told him, I 
said, ``Mr. President, you're not our enemy, and therefore we need to 
get rid of the ABM Treaty. We need to have a new way of thinking, a way 
that will allow a peaceful nation like the United States to develop the 
necessary defenses to protect our people, our allies, our friends all 
around the world.'' It's time to think differently about the defense of 
the United States of America.
    There are some at this table who--all at this table who support me, 
but some in the United States Senate are nervous about getting rid of 
the relics of the cold war. And I don't agree with them. I don't agree 
with them. And the reason I don't is because I understand the intention 
of America. We love the peace. We're a nation that relies upon strength 
to keep the peace. We're a nation that says, we can develop the 
technologies necessary to make

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the entire world more peaceful. It's my pledge to the American people; 
it's my pledge to our allies overseas; and it's a pledge I intend to 
keep.
    We're making progress on what they call a Patients' Bill of Rights--
it recognizes that patients need to be more empowered when it comes to 
making choices in the medical field. I say we're making progress because 
there needs to be balance in the law. It's important to give our docs 
and patients more opportunity to interface, and the law will. But we 
cannot allow lawsuits to drive up the cost of medicine, that will force 
people out of health insurance. There are too many people uninsured in 
America today.
    I think we can get a good bill out of the conference committee. We 
got one good bill already out of the House, a not-so-good bill out of 
the Senate. I'm hopeful that we can come together and get a good bill 
that I can sign, that will bring balance to health care.
    And, finally, we're making great progress in Washington, DC, on a 
very important initiative. It's called the Faith-Based and Community 
Development Initiative. It's an initiative that really takes welfare a 
step beyond where we are today.
    First of all, we recognize there are lot of people hurt in America, 
people who have lost hope and faith in our country, people who don't 
believe the American Dream was meant for them, people hooked on drugs 
and are destitute. We should never give up on those folks in our 
country. We're a compassionate nation, and we're a wealthy nation, and 
we ought to focus our resources and compassion so it helps.
    But Governments can't make people love one another. I wish we 
could--I'd sign the law. Allard would sponsor it, Nighthorse would vote for it, and I would sign it. But 
the good news is, we are a loving nation. There's a lot of people who 
have heard the call to love their neighbor just like they'd like to be 
loved themselves.
    We're a nation the fabric of which is created by little communities 
of conscience all over America. I was at one today, at the YMCA camp in 
Estes Park, a place where they teach children right from wrong by 
teaching values. There are drug treatment programs all across our 
country who rely upon faith. They change a person's heart, and that 
person changes their lives. We've got prison ministries that are helping 
prisoners find the walk. We've got all kinds of faith-based initiatives 
that are literally changing our country one heart, one soul, one 
conscience at a time.
    And the Federal Government must not fear faith-based programs in 
America. We must empower them. We must welcome them into all 
neighborhoods, to make sure the American Dream reaches across every 
neighborhood.
    My dream for America is to usher in a period of personal 
responsibility, a culture that rejects the old times that said, if it 
feels good, do it, and if you've got a problem, blame somebody else. I 
believe there's a better culture for the country. It's one that says 
each of us must be responsible for the decisions we make in life.
    If you're a mom or a dad, you're responsible for your child. The 
most important job you'll ever have is to love your child with all your 
heart and all your soul. If you're a neighbor--got a neighbor in need, 
it's up to you, not your Government, to help the neighbor in need. Be 
responsible with our environment, responsible by supporting teachers in 
the school system. Be a responsible citizen.
    But it starts with having responsible leadership. And that's why I'm 
so proud to stand and represent and urge for the reelection of Wayne 
Allard and Bill Owens, who are responsible citizens, who bring dignity 
and honor to the offices to which they have been elected.
    It's an honor to be here. May God bless you all, and may God bless 
America.

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Note: The President spoke at 6:41 p.m. in the Plaza Ballroom at the 
Adam's Mark Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Bob Beauprez, State 
chairman, Republican State Central Committee of Colorado; Gov. Jeb Bush 
of Florida; and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.