    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
    [June 24, 2002]
    [Pages 1054-1059]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Luncheon for Representative Mike Ferguson in Newark, New Jersey
    June 24, 2002

        The President. Thank you very much. So here's what I believe. I
    believe if you find an honest person who works hard on behalf of every
    citizen in the district in which he represents, a person who does in
    office what he said he would do, you need to send him back to
    Washington, DC.
        I'm here as as strong an advocate as I can be for the reelection of
    Mike Ferguson to the United States Congress. After all, we share some
    things in common. We both have got impressive mothers. [Laughter] We
    both got degrees from Notre Dame. [Laughter] Okay, it took me a 30-
    minute speech to get mine. [Laughter] We both married great women.
        I appreciate so very much Maureen. I
    love her demeanor. It was an honor to meet their children today. And I
    want you to know, Maureen and Mike, that Laura
    sends her best. She is not town--not in Washington, that is. She's out
    in Texas with her mother, and she is--but boy,
    she's made me proud. People now know why I asked her to marry me.
    [Laughter] A lot of people wonder why she said yes, but--[laughter].
        But we're doing great. Listen, many of you said you pray for Laura
    and me and the family. It is the kindest gift you can give the
    President, is your prayers, and I want to thank you for that.
        We had a big event at the Port Authority today, and one of the--one
    of my treasured Cabinet secretaries and friends came with me, and that
    is your former Governor, Christie Todd Whitman. Barney--Barney's the little Scottish Terrier--wouldn't
    have happened without Christie Todd. [Laughter] And so I thank her for
    her service, but as importantly, thank her for Barney. [Laughter]
        I want to thank some candidates who are here. Doug
    Forrester, running for the United States
    Senate, is with us. Scott Garrett, running in
    the 5th District of New

    [[Page 1055]]

    Jersey, thank you, Scott. My friend Buster Soaries, thank you, Buster, for coming. I'm glad you're
    here. I want to thank Rodney Frelinghuysen for being here. He's a fine Member of the United States
    Congress. And Rodney, thank you for your leadership. Frank
    LoBiondo is here as well. Frank, where are
    you? He heard I was going to give a speech. [Laughter]
        I want to thank Lew Eisenberg, my friend
    here from New Jersey, for being such a great Republican National
    Committee finance chairman. I want to thank Lew for taking time out of a
    busy life to serve our party and our country. And I want to thank your
    chairman, the new father. Joe, I
    wish you all the very best with your new baby. Thanks for coming.
        So the enemy hits us, and a lot of people were wondering how people
    would respond. And Mike and Maureen spend
    time comforting people. They didn't hold press conferences. They didn't
    hire some camera crew to follow them around. They did the best they
    could possibly do about extending love and compassion and decency to
    people who hurt deeply. That's the kind of Congressman I would like to
    have. This was not a time for politics in our country. This was a time
    to be as good an American as you could possibly be. It's a time of great
    testing. These two folks passed it--passed their test with flying
    colors.
        And he's passed his test in the United States Congress too. A couple
    of examples: He understands, like I understand, the role of Government
    is not to create wealth. The role of Government is to create an
    environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish, in which the small
    business can grow to be a big business, in which people are willing to
    take risk. He understands that when you cut the people's taxes, it's
    part of creating an environment that encourages job growth.
        You know, when I was running, I said--they asked me, ``Would you
    ever deficit spend?'' I said, ``Well, only if we had a recession or a
    national emergency or a war.'' [Laughter] And our economy was
    floundering, and thank goodness I had allies like Mike, who agreed with
    me that we needed to let people keep more of their own money. See, we--
    here's the textbook we read from. If somebody has more money in their
    pocket, they're likely to spend it, and when they spend it, they demand
    a good and--or service. And when somebody demands a good or service,
    somebody is going to produce a good and service. And when somebody is
    producing a good or a service, somebody is working.
        In Washington, they talk about statistics all the time. Here's my
    attitude: So long as somebody wants to work and can't find a job, we
    need to worry about that person. We need to worry less about statistics,
    and more about the people--more about people who are trying to find a
    job. Tax cuts came at the right time in America, and I'm glad Mike was
    by my side. And now we need to make them permanent.
        And I appreciate his commitment to making sure Social Security is
    strong, not only strong today, and that we fulfill the promise to our
    seniors today, but strong tomorrow. And as well, you need to know that
    as an impressive--as a sign of the Congress' recognition of Mike's
    leadership, he's going to be one of the leaders on the floor of the
    Congress, to make sure that our seniors get prescription drugs in
    Medicare.
        That doesn't happen all the time, when you've got a freshman
    Congressman. You know, as they say down home, it means you've got a good
    one. [Laughter] And you need to work hard to put him back in office. And
    that means more than showing up in ballrooms. That means manning the
    phones and turning out the vote. Many of you never get enough credit for
    that kind of work, here in New Jersey or anywhere around the country.
    I'm here to tell you, I thank you from the bottom of Mike's heart and my
    heart for your willingness to be grassroots activists for something you
    believe in. And I believe in this guy, and I know you do as well.

    [[Page 1056]]

        And what I love about Mike's background is, he was a teacher. For
    those of you who have been teachers and--or are teachers today, thank
    you from the bottom of our heart. It's an incredibly important
    profession, because while homeland security is now the top priority of
    the country, economic security depends upon making sure every single
    child--I don't mean a few or some--every child gets a good education.
        We passed a great education reform bill. Mike was by my side. He
    understands it's important to set high standards. It's simple--kind of a
    simple logic, but if you set low standards, guess what you're going to
    get? You're going to get bad results. We believe every child can learn.
    Therefore, we've set the highest of high standards.
        And we believe you ought to measure. You see, if you don't measure,
    how do you know if somebody is not getting shuffling through--get
    shuffled through the system? And guess who is easy to shuffle through?
    Children whose parents don't speak English as a first language, for
    example. It's so much easier to quit on a child. Inner-city African
    Americans, it's easy to quit on them. But when you measure, we get to
    determine whether or not the goal of every child getting educated is
    being met. And if that's the case, I promise you, I'm going to praise
    the teachers all over the country. However, where I find children
    trapped in schools that won't teach and won't change, I demand something
    different, because not one single child needs to be left behind in
    America. And Mike understands that, and I appreciated his support on the
    education matters.
        I appreciate his support on matters of economic security. That is a
    top priority of mine, to make sure we continue to work to expand our job
    base, so people can find work. It's a top priority of mine to make sure
    that we protect the homeland too.
        Today I went to the Port Authority to thank the first-responders,
    brave police and fire and Port Authority officials that work so hard on
    behalf of the American people. You just need to know, if you don't know,
    that there are a lot of people working a lot of hours to do everything
    we can to prevent the enemy from attacking America again. And I'm proud
    of their efforts, and I'm proud of their response. I went today to thank
    those on the frontline. We can't thank them enough for the diligence.
        I like to tell people that anytime we get a hint or a lead or a
    piece of evidence, we're going to run it down. We're going to make sure
    that the enemy--if they think they can hit us, they're going to have to
    cross some mighty big hurdles to do so. And we're getting better at what
    we're doing. We really are. Today I saw some fairly sophisticated
    equipment--or very sophisticated equipment about how to detect hazardous
    equipment. If somebody is trying to ship it here, we've got a better job
    of risk assessment, so that not only we can facilitate trade, but we can
    also make sure that the cargo coming in is inspected. We need to know
    who is coming in our country, if they're going out when they're supposed
    to be going out. We need to know what is coming in our country, if it is
    supposed to be the stuff that's supposed to be coming in our country.
    And so, therefore, we're being wiser about how we use technology with
    our Customs and Border and INS people.
        And we need to share information better. There is no question about
    it, prior to September the 11th, the FBI and CIA weren't talking enough,
    and now they are on a regular basis. There's no question that the
    culture of the FBI wasn't focused for homeland defense. After all,
    they're charged with hauling people in that had busted the law. And they
    still need to be doing that. But the world's changed, and now the focus
    is on protecting the homeland. And every morning, I talk to the Director
    of the FBI and the head of the
    CIA, and we talk about information and how
    we're doing and what's happening with this lead. It's all part of making
    sure we do everything we can

    [[Page 1057]]

    to--so I can travel the country to say we're doing--we are doing
    everything we can, every possible thing, to protect the homeland.
        I think we need to do some more in Washington, DC. I believe
    strongly we need to reorganize the agencies involved with the homeland,
    the defense of our homeland, into one single Cabinet agency. Listen, I
    didn't run on ``Vote for me; I'm going to try to make Government
    bigger.'' I understand that, and this is going to be a big agency. But I
    do want to make sure that we've got authority and responsibility
    aligned. There's over 100 different agencies involved with the defense
    of our homeland. In order to make sure we've got the right focus and the
    right culture, it seems wise to me to have them aligned under one
    agency.
        And so I'm asking Congress to make a tough decision, to give up a
    little turf, and to do what's right on behalf of the American people, so
    that I can continue to say the Government is doing good. And I must tell
    you, the response has been gratifying, the response from both
    Republicans and Democrats. And I want to thank them for that, and I just
    urge them to continue to work to get this done.
        There's a lot to do to secure the homeland, and we will. But the
    surest way to secure the homeland is to hunt the killers down one by one
    and bring them to justice, which is what we're going to do. And it's
    going to take a while. It's going to take a while.
        Audience member. You're doing a good job.
        The President. Thank you. Every crowd needs a yeller. [Laughter]
    Thank you.
        I'm not doing as good a job as the U.S. military is doing though.
    I'll tell you, they're doing a great job. The--I can't imagine what was
    going through the minds of the enemy when they attacked us. They must
    have said, this country was so materialistic, so self-absorbed, so
    selfish, that after September the 11th, we might file a lawsuit or two.
    [Laughter] They found out we think differently. They did. They found out
    that we love freedom, and we love our country.
        And we're making progress. We're making progress. The other night,
    when I announced the Department of Homeland Security, I told the country
    that we have arrested--we, our friends, and allies, have arrested over
    2,400 people. And that's good. Some of them you never heard about. This
    is a different kind of war. This isn't a war with fronts and tanks and
    industrial complexes. This is a war of this great country fighting down
    shadowy killers, nothing but a bunch of coldblooded killers who do not
    value innocent life. And 2,400 of them is a good dent. We've made pretty
    good progress. But you've just got to know there's more to go. And so
    long as they're out there threatening us, we're going to run them down.
    They think they can hide--[applause].
        I've submitted to Congress the largest defense spending increase
    since Ronald Reagan was President, and I did so for two reasons: One,
    anytime we send our troops into harm's way, they deserve the best
    equipment, the best training, and the best pay; and secondly, I did so
    because this is going to take a while.
        You know, I just--I don't have a calendar on my desk--it's a
    magnificent desk, I might add, in the--[laughter]--beautiful Oval
    Office--that says, on such-and-such a date, we quit. That's not how you
    think when it comes to defending freedom. There is no date of departure
    from this noble effort. Until we feel secure, that's the date. And so I
    work hard on a daily basis to keep our coalition intact.
        And this weekend, I had the honor of calling Gloria
    Arroyo, the President of the
    Philippines. I don't know if you remember, but they had this little Al-
    Qaida-type terrorist organization that captured two Americans as well as
    other people. The wife lives today free in
    America; the husband, unfortunately, died. They're called Abu Sayyaf.
    Early on in the war I said, ``They're there

    [[Page 1058]]

    in your country. We'd like to help you. However you want the United
    States to help, we want to help.'' See, we're after--anytime these
    terrorists light, we're after them. And I called her and congratulated
    her on what looks like the demise of the head of the organization,
    totally disrupting it. Either you're with us, or you're against us, and
    she proved she was with us. And I want to thank her for her leadership.
        And so we're making steady, steady progress, just one day at a
    time--one day at a time. And as you know, I'm deeply concerned not only
    about shadowy terrorist networks; I'm deeply concerned about shadowy
    terrorist networks teaming up with nations which have got some of the
    world's worst leaders and at the same time want to develop and maintain
    the world's worst weapons. And I'm a patient man. I'll take my time.
    We've got a lot of tools at our disposal. We've got diplomatic tools,
    financial tools, military tools. But for the sake of our children and
    for the sake of freedom, we can't let the world's worst leaders threaten
    us or blackmail us with the world's worst weapons.
        I want to thank Mike for his steadfast support on this war we all
    fight. This isn't that partisan battle up in the Congress. There are no
    partisan battles when it comes to defending the homeland. This isn't a
    Republican initiative. It's not a Democrat initiative. This is an
    American initiative. And I think Congress understands that.
        Not only do I feel determined; I also feel that out of the evil done
    to America is going to come some good. I truly believe that. I believe
    that if we remain strong and steadfast, we can achieve peace. I see a
    lot of youngsters here. I want them to know that my dream is peace. I
    want our children--and matter of fact, children all around the world--to
    grow up in peace.
        Your country doesn't seek revenge. We seek justice. And when we went
    into the first battle of this new war, we liberated a country. We didn't
    conquer a country. We liberated a country. And thanks to your Government
    and your country, young girls go to school for the first time in
    Afghanistan.
        And I also believe here at home, out of the evil done to America can
    come some incredible good as well. I do. I see--if you want to fight
    evil, love your neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. If you
    want to fight evil, do some good--do some good. Help a neighbor in need.
    Mentor a child. Teach a child to read. Listen, there are pockets of
    despair and loneliness and hopelessness in America that we need to worry
    about. There are people who hurt in this country, people who wonder, is
    America meant for them? And I believe that because this Nation is so
    compassionate and decent, that out of the evil done to America on
    September the 11th will come the good by reaching into neighborhoods
    with love and compassion and decency.
        I'm a strong backer of the Faith-Based Initiative, because I believe
    in providing help and hope to those in need. Government can write a
    check, but what Government cannot do is put hope in people's hearts or a
    sense of purpose in people's lives. That will be done by our fellow
    citizens. We will change America one soul, one conscience, one person at
    a time.
        And it's happening here in this country. Joanna Glick came out to the airport today and then was at the Port
    Authority with me; she's a 17-year-old child, a high school student who,
    the day after September the 11th, started what's called Teen Freedom
    Corps Club in her high school to help people in need. You know, what
    made her story most interesting is, her brother, Jeremy, was on Flight
    93. And so here's a child who asked the question, ``What can I do to
    fight evil,'' and of course, obviously, misses her brother and loves her
    brother but immediately went out to rally compassion and decency to help
    people in need.
        Her brother serves as a great example of what I think is happening
    in America, and why I say that out of evil will come some good. Here's a
    guy, along with others,

    [[Page 1059]]

    on an airplane they knew was a weapon--told their loved ones goodbye,
    told them they loved them, said a prayer, said, ``Let's roll,'' drove
    the plane in the ground.
        They served something greater than themselves in life. They were
    willing to say, ``I will die to save somebody else.'' Joanna was willing to say, ``I will work. I will set aside
    myself, to serve somebody else.'' And that's my call to my fellow
    Americans. If you want to do some good, you can fight evil by loving a
    neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself.
        Now, out of the evil will come some good, because this is America.
    We are the greatest country, the greatest country, on the face of the
    Earth. It is my privilege to campaign for a Congressman of that great
    country, as the President of the greatest country.
        God bless you all, and God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:28 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at the
    Sheraton Newark Airport Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Maureen
    Ferguson, wife of Representative Ferguson; Jenna Welch, mother of First
    Lady Laura Bush; DeForest ``Buster'' Soaries, candidate for New Jersey's
    12th Congressional District; State Senator Joseph M. Kyrillos, Jr.,
    chairman, New Jersey Republican Party; and missionary Gracia Burnham,
    who, along with her husband, Martin, was held captive by the Abu Sayyaf
    terrorist group in the Philippines. Representative Ferguson was a
    candidate for reelection in New Jersey's Seventh Congressional District.