[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2001, Book II)]
[August 15, 2001]
[Pages 984-989]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 984]]


Remarks at a Dinner Honoring Senator Pete V. Domenici in Albuquerque
August 15, 2001

    Thank you all very much for that warm New Mexican welcome. Gosh, 
we've had a great day in Albuquerque, haven't we, Pete? We've had a 
great day. It's really fun to travel with such a decent man around your 
important city. I'm really glad I came. No better way to end it than to 
urge the good folks of New Mexico to send this good man back to the 
United States Senate.
    I appreciate Congresswoman Heather Wilson 
for being here. We need to send her back, too, by the way. She's plenty 
capable. So is my friend Joe Skeen. I'm honored 
that Joe came up and worked today with us as well. I want to thank your 
Lieutenant Governor and all the State 
officials who joined us today.
    I particularly want to thank Bill Keleher 
and John Dendahl for their leadership of our 
party. I want to thank my friend Ken. Where are 
you, Kenny? Thank you so much for your leadership on this event, and 
thank you for your friendship. You've done a great job. Sherolyn 
Smith, Rick Alvidrez, I want to thank you all for setting up this event. And I 
want to thank each and every one of you for contributing to Pete's 
reelection. It's really important that you've done so.
    Like you, I can't believe anybody would dare run against him. 
[Laughter] But somebody might be foolish enough to--in which case, we 
need to send the message that when you get a good, decent man 
representing an important State, send him back in Washington; keep him 
in Washington.
    The thing I've learned about Pete Domenici, he's a man of great 
passion. He's a passionate person. He's passionate about subjects that 
are dear to his heart. He's a national leader--along with his 
beautiful wife--in mental health. It's an 
important issue. And by the way, we both married pretty darn well. 
[Laughter] I'm sorry my wife isn't here. She's 
holding down the fort in Crawford, Texas. I like to tell people that I 
love my new address, but I also love my home. It's important never to 
forget where you came from. I came from Texas. I will serve my time in 
Washington, and I'll return back to Texas.
    Pete's passionate on research. He's passionate about research in New 
Mexican laboratories. Trust me. [Laughter] He's been to the Oval Office 
a lot. [Laughter] By the way, it's important to have a Senator who can 
come into the Oval Office representing your State. You want a Senator 
who will have the President return his phone calls. He talks about 
making sure New Mexico stays on the leading edge of important research, 
and you've got a President who's listening to him, by the way.
    Pete is passionate about the budget. He's brought fiscal sanity to 
Washington, DC. You see, the tendency in Washington is to want to 
overspend. Sometimes people forget up there, they're not spending the 
Government's money; they're spending the people's money. And Pete is a 
fiscal watchdog for the taxpayers' money.
    Pete is passionate about his family. It's important to have a person 
in Washington, DC, who loves his family. As a matter of fact, there's 
nothing more important for America than family. Pete personifies family. 
Pete loves the people of New Mexico. He's passionate about the people of 
New Mexico, like he's passionate about the State of New Mexico.
    It's important to have a passionate American representing your 
State, but he's also more than that. He's a man of enormous dignity and 
integrity. And this Nation needs more leaders that set good examples for 
our young, like Pete Domenici.
    I've got a selfish reason for getting him back up there. I need his 
help. [Laughter]

[[Page 985]]

We're working on some important agenda items for the American people, 
and we're making good progress, but there is more to do.
    You know, when I went up to Washington, I was a little disturbed at 
the tone that was taking place. I can remember sitting in Austin, Texas, 
being perplexed and disturbed by the rancor and the bitterness that 
seemed to have constantly gripped our Nation's Capital. And I made a 
determined effort to go change the tone. We can disagree in Washington, 
but we should do so in a respectful way. We need to respect each other 
more. We need to hold up the American people more than we hold up our 
own political parties, it seems like to me, to get some things done. And 
we're making good progress.
    One of the areas where we're making good progress is the budget--it 
is to say to the American people through our budget, ``We're going to be 
responsible with your money.'' As Pete mentioned, we've inherited some 
problems. But what the heck, I like to solve problems. That's my job. 
And one of the problems we inherited was an economy that was sputtering 
along and slowing down. And one way to make sure that we kick-start our 
economy is to give people their money back. And so we campaigned on, 
argued for, and I had the honor of signing in the White House the 
largest tax reduction in a generation. It was necessary. And it's the 
right thing to do.
    You'll hear them screaming up in Washington, ``Oh, we're running out 
of money.'' Well, that's because they want to spend every single dime 
that ever gets up there. You'll hear people say, ``Well, the surplus is 
going away because of the tax cut.'' No, folks, the economy is slowing 
down, which means we have less projected money, and that's why we needed 
tax relief, money back to people who are going to help kick-start this 
economy.
    And I want to remind you of something. We still have the largest 
surplus--second largest surplus in the Nation's history. And we're still 
paying down more debt than ever paid down before in our Nation's 
history. And the tax relief plan was eminently fair.
    See, it used to be up there in Washington they'd say, ``Well, we're 
going to pick and choose the winners and losers when it came to tax 
relief. You get tax relief. You don't get tax relief.'' The attitude of 
Senator Domenici and myself and the members of the congressional 
delegation who are here said, ``If we're going to have tax relief, let's 
provide tax relief for everybody who pays taxes.'' And that's the fair 
way to do it. It's a responsible, fair tax program.
    We also sent a clear message to small-business owners and farmers 
and ranchers when we said, ``We need to get rid of the death tax.'' The 
death tax is unfair to people who have built up a business. The death 
tax is unfair to the small-business owner who wants to leave a business 
to a son or a daughter. The death tax is unfair because we're taxing 
entrepreneurs and producers twice in America. The Tax Code not only 
reduced all rates and provided tax rebates, it also got rid of the 
onerous death tax, which is going to make the code more fair and more 
responsible.
    Now, we're going to have a fight over the budget coming up. And 
fortunately, we've got a good man named Domenici who is going help fight 
off the big spenders. They will push for more money here, and they'll 
push for more money there. But I want to remind you, the growth in the 
budget that Pete passed out of the Senate, and was concurred by both the 
Senate and the House, provides responsible growth in our budget. And I 
can assure you, Mr. Chairman--or I wish would be Mr. Chairman--
[laughter]--should be Mr. Chairman, and will be Mr. Chairman after next 
2002--and I want the Members of Congress to hear that once we set a 
budget we're going to stick by it. And if not, I'm going to use the veto 
pen of the President

[[Page 986]]

of the United States to keep fiscal sanity in Washington, DC.
    Today we had the pleasure of going to an elementary school, first 
day of school. Gosh, it was exhilarating to shake hands with the first 
graders and the second graders that were just showing up. Their mothers 
and dads were thrilled to get them back in school, it seemed like. 
[Laughter] The teachers were great. They were all excited. And my 
message to the folks assembled there was this: that education is a 
domestic priority of mine. I know it's one of Pete's, as well. It's so 
important we get it right in America that every child gets educated.
    We passed a good bill out of the House and a good bill out of the 
Senate. And I hope they don't play politics with it. They need to get 
the conference committee, get the bill resolved, and get it on my desk. 
And let me explain to you some of the principles involved in the 
education bill.
    First, it trusts the local folks to run the schools. I strongly 
believe in local control of our schools. I believe we need to pass more 
power and flexibility and authority out of Washington to the folks in 
Albuquerque, New Mexico. The bill does that.
    There's some wonderful programs in the bill. One of them is a 
reading initiative that my wife is all involved in, and I'm passionate 
about. I'll never forget the phrase of Phyllis Hunter in Houston, Texas. 
She stood up in front of a large crowd of people, and she said, ``You 
know, Governor''--and I was Governor then--she said, ``Governor, reading 
is the new civil right.'' I believe that. I believe reading is a civil 
right. I believe when you can learn to read, then you can learn, and 
then you can access the American Dream.
    The sad thing is, too many of our children can't read. And I intend 
to do something about it. Not only have we targeted money for diagnostic 
tools to make sure we determine whether or not young children have got 
problems that we correct early, before it's too late, we've got teacher-
training money; we've got intervention money. But the core of the 
education bill is accountability. The core of the education bill says 
that if you receive any taxpayer's money, you must measure. You must 
show us whether or not children are reading and writing and adding and 
subtracting.
    Now, I know there's a lot of--oh, you hear all kinds of arguments 
about whether or not that should take place. Some will say, ``Well, you 
can't measure because it means there's too much Government.'' My 
attitude about that is, is that if we're spending taxpayers' money, it 
seems like we want to know whether or not it's working. It seems like it 
makes sense to ask the question, what are the results? And there's no 
more important place to ask, what are the results, than whether or not 
the children of the United States can read or write or add and subtract.
    And then there are those who say, on the accountability system, it 
is racist to test. Folks, I'm going to tell you as plainly as I can, 
it's racist not to test, because guess who gets left behind in a system 
where there's no accountability? It is so easy to quit on a child whose 
parents do not speak English as a first language. It's so easy to walk 
into a classroom full of the so-called hard-to-educate and say, ``Let's 
don't test. Let's just move people through.''
    We cannot have a system that doesn't hold each child as precious. 
And so the cornerstone of reform coming out of Washington, DC, is more 
money, focused money, but as well, the demand for strong accountability, 
so that we can praise the teachers and principals and superintendents 
who are getting it right but, as importantly, blow the whistle on 
failure when we find children trapped in schools that won't teach and 
won't change. There are no second-rate children in America and no 
second-rate dreams.
    Pete mentioned we're making progress in bringing some sanity to 
America when it comes to an energy policy. This country has drifted 
along without an energy policy. And we laid out a good, constructive 
plan.

[[Page 987]]

It's a plan that says, we can do a better job of conserving our 
resources. And the Federal Government is beginning to take a role. We're 
making sure that we purchase vampire-defeating devices. A vampire is a 
device like a charger for a telephone. When you plug it in a wall and 
your phone may not be in there but the charger is, it still eats a lot 
of electricity--or more than it should. Some entrepreneurs came along 
and invented a device that uses 7 times less energy. So we're going to 
start using those devices to set the example that we can do a better job 
of using technology to save.
    But California is the State that's got the best conservation record 
in the country, and yet, they ran out of energy. [Laughter] Now, one of 
the things they're doing is, they're building 12 more powerplants. And 
that's great, and our Government has helped them. We've expedited the 
permitting of the plants. Those plants are going to require natural gas 
to power them, and we've got to get the gas from somewhere. And so, on 
the one hand, we need better conservation. On the other hand, we need 
more exploration for the resources. I'd like us to be less dependent on 
foreign sources of energy. I think it's going to make our foreign policy 
a lot more--[applause].
    Washington has been struggling with what they call Patients' Bill of 
Rights for the last couple of sessions. I made up my mind we're going to 
get a good Patients' Bill of Rights out of the Congress, one that 
heralds the relationship between patient and doctor but one that doesn't 
encourage frivolous and junk lawsuits that will cause people to lose 
their health insurance. We got a good bill out of the House, a not-so-
good bill out of the Senate. And I'm hopeful we can get--finally get a 
good Patients' Bill of Rights to begin meaningful reform of our health 
care system in America.
    The Vice President and I spent a lot of time in the campaign--and by 
the way, he's doing great. And what a heck of a selection I made. As he 
likes to put it, ``Who said those three electoral votes in Wyoming don't 
matter?'' [Laughter] What really matters, he's a steady hand. He's 
capable.
    We said we're going to make sure that our military remains strong 
and ready. In one of my trips overseas, I went to Kosovo, and I signed 
another pay raise for the troops. It's important to make sure those who 
wear the uniform are well paid, well housed, and well treated. We're 
doing a much better job in America of treating our folks right. We've 
got big budget increases in defense.
    But I also want you to know that ours is an administration that 
believes in vision, that there's got to be a plan. So I've asked 
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to develop 
a strategic vision for what our military ought to look like today and 
what it ought to look like tomorrow to keep the peace; how we can remain 
strong and ready this moment and, as importantly, how we can use 
technologies to devise a military that will be harder to find, more 
lethal when it moves, easier to move, and that will incorporate the new 
technologies so that we don't waste taxpayers' money when it comes to 
building the weapons systems of the future.
    One of the things that--as you've probably read about, is that I 
believe that, as we go into the 21st century, we need to have new 
strategic relations with some of our old enemies. I had some fascinating 
meetings with Vladimir Putin, the President 
of Russia. I told him in plain terms--I said, ``Mr. President, you don't 
have anything to fear from the United States. We're a peaceful nation. 
We don't view you as our enemy. The true threats facing the United 
States are threats from terrorist nations, nations that they call rogue 
nations, nations that are developing weapons of mass destruction that 
may be pointed at us, may be pointed at our friends the Israelis or 
other allies we have, to hold us hostage, conduct international 
blackmail. That's the

[[Page 988]]

true threat, Mr. Putin. And therefore, we need to get rid of those 
ancient treaties, codified during a time when we hated each other, so 
that America can develop the technologies and the defenses necessary to 
protect ourselves and our allies from the true threats of the 21st 
century.''
    The ABM Treaty is outmoded, outdated. It codified a hateful 
relationship that no longer exists. We need to move beyond the days of 
the cold war and free this great freedom-loving people to provide 
protections for freedom-loving people from all around the world by 
getting rid of the ABM Treaty once and for all.
    We have told our friends and allies around the world we will consult 
with them, and we will. And I told Mr. Putin, 
``Come along with us.'' It's a chance to set up a new strategic 
relationship. And we'll see how it goes. I think we're making pretty 
good progress. My point to you is that we'll remain strong when it comes 
to our military and wise when it comes to our planning and ready when it 
comes to the true threats that face the American people as we head into 
the 21st century.
    And finally, I had a fantastic meeting today with members of the 
faith community here in New Mexico. Archbishop, thank you for being here today, sir. And I want to thank 
Pete for inviting folks to come and to hear me discuss the philosophy 
behind a Faith-Based/Community-Based Initiative.
    We're moving beyond the old welfare paradigm in America. I gave a 
speech at Notre Dame and talked about the fact that another Texas 
President gave a graduation speech and talked about a welfare help plan, 
and that was Lyndon Johnson, and the Great Society began. And then there 
was welfare reform signed by my predecessor that said, ``People must be 
independent in America, and you've got to work.'' And it had some 
successes; it really did. A lot of folks went from welfare to work, but 
there's still more work to do. There's a lot of people in our society 
who hurt, a lot of people who really have no hope. Gosh, I remember one 
of the times I was at a juvenile justice facility in Texas, and I was 
talking about the American Dream. A little fellow who had been 
incarcerated said, ``What does that mean? What is an American Dream?'' 
He doesn't understand dreaming. He doesn't understand setting goals.
    There's a lot of hopelessness, lot of addiction, lot of people lost. 
And we've got to do something about it in America. We're too good a 
people to allow that to continue. But what Government cannot do is 
change hearts. Government can't inspire. We're good for law. We can 
spend money, but money isn't the only answer. In many cases, the lost 
soul needs somebody to say, ``I love you,'' or to put your arm around 
you and say, ``America is meant for you.'' We need mentors all across 
America saying to young children whose parents may be in prison, for 
example, ``I care about you. I want you to understand somebody cares.''
    And so one of the most important initiatives that we're discussing 
in Washington is how do we unleash the great passion and compassion of 
America. How do we unleash those who have heard the call to love a 
neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves, those not inspired by 
Government necessarily but inspired by a higher calling. The people of 
faith who live in every neighborhood across America must not be feared 
by our Government, but energized and welcomed when it comes to healing 
those lost souls. It's a powerful initiative because it taps the great 
strength of America. And the great strength of America lies in the 
hearts and souls of our citizenry.
    I can't tell you what an honor it is to represent the people of this 
country. My dream is for us to be a more responsible nation, a nation 
when the moms and dads of the world understand their most important job 
is not their day job but the job of loving the children they happen to 
have

[[Page 989]]

brought into this world, and love them with all their hearts and all 
their souls.
    But a responsible nation also requires corporate America to be 
responsible. It requires all of us to be responsible to shepherd our 
resources well. And as importantly, it requires all of us to ask the 
question, if we see a neighbor in need, shall we not--shall we make sure 
we don't cross to the other side of the road? Shouldn't we as a 
responsible citizen help a neighbor and not expect Government to do so? 
Shouldn't we find out areas where we can help somebody who's crying out 
for help? And the answer is, in this country, absolutely. But 
responsible societies begin with responsible leaders.
    And that's why I'm so proud to support Pete Domenici for the United 
States Senate again. He understands responsibility. He lives it every 
single day. And my hope is that the good people of New Mexico don't make 
a terrible error. My hope is the good people of New Mexico send this 
good man back to Washington, DC, with a resounding victory.
    Thank you all for having me.

Note: The President spoke at 6:05 p.m. at the Sheraton Old Town Hotel. 
In his remarks, he referred to Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley of New Mexico; 
Bill Keleher, campaign chairman, People for Pete Domenici; John Dendahl, 
chairman, Sherolyn Smith DeSantis, second vice chairman, and Ken 
Zangara, Bernalillo County chairman, Republican Party of New Mexico; 
Rick Alvidrez, board of directors member, Greater Albuquerque Chamber of 
Commerce; Nancy Domenici, wife of Senator Domenici; Archbishop Michael 
J. Sheehan, Archdiocese of Santa Fe, who gave the invocation; and 
Phyllis Hunter, consultant, Texas Reading Initiative.