    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
    [March 18, 2002]
    [Pages 428-433]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Fundraising Dinner for Senatorial Candidate

    James M. Talent in St. Louis, Missouri
    March 18, 2002

        Thank you very much. Be seated, please. Gosh, thanks for such a warm
    welcome. It's always good to have a good introducer. [Laughter]
    Bucky is my favorite uncle when
    I'm in St. Louis. [Laughter] He's my favorite uncle all the time; he's a
    fabulous man. Thanks, Buck. And I like to call Sam Fox ``Foxy.'' Foxy, I didn't realize you were so eloquent.
    [Laughter] But I thank you for the leadership, and I want to thank you
    all for coming tonight. This is a magnificent crowd here to support the
    next United States Senator from Missouri, Jim Talent.
        I appreciate Jim, and I appreciate the fact that he's a family man.
    Like me, he married above himself--[laughter]--so I appreciate
    Brenda. It's an honor to meet the three children today, and it's an honor to meet your mother, Brenda. I got a report from my homefront as well--I
    married really well. [Laughter] Laura is doing
    great, and I'm so proud of her. She's made a great First Lady for the
    country.
        I want to thank the members of the Missouri delegation who are here,
    starting with the senior Senator, Kit Bond. Thank you for coming, Kit. I appreciate his leadership on
    a lot of important issues. Take election reform--he's making sure that
    we encourage people to vote, but he's working hard to make it tougher to
    cheat. Half of the Senators understand what he's trying to do. It seems
    like one out of the two Senators from Missouri understand that.
        I want to thank the members from the congressional delegation here
    as well, Todd Akin, Roy Blunt, Jo Ann Emerson, Sam
    Graves, Kenny Hulshof. These are fine, fine Members of the United States
    Congress, and I'm proud to serve with them.
        I want to thank all the members of the Republican Party who are
    here. I particularly want to thank the grassroots activists

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    who man the phones and sign all the letters and get out the vote. I want
    to thank you for your hard work in 2000. I want to thank you for your
    hard work that you're fixing to do in 2002.
        I'm here to support as strongly as I possibly can this good man to
    become the Senator--the next Senator from Missouri. And I do so for a
    reason, and it starts with the quality of the individual. He is a
    quality person who's got the right values. He is a steady man, and he is
    an experienced person who will bring good judgment to the United States
    Senate. And let me cite some of his qualifications.
        First, he has been in Washington before. He was there for 8 years in
    the House of Representatives, where he made a mark of accomplishment.
    You know, in that town, we've got some good talkers, and then we've got
    the doers. We've got some people up there who like to hear themselves
    talk and others who actually get something done. And that's the way Jim
    Talent is; he knows how to get things done--things done not only for the
    good of Missouri, to get things done for--the things of Missouri, but to
    get things done positively in a positive way for the country.
        I want the people of Missouri to remember he served on the Armed
    Services Committee, and he stood up for a strong national defense when
    he was there. And obviously, that was before we entered this war. And
    thank goodness he did stand up for a strong national defense when he was
    there, because it enabled us to have a military capable of accomplishing
    the first mission we sent them out to do, which was to destroy the
    Taliban.
        He worked on historic welfare reform. He worked to change a culture
    of dependency to one that recognized if you get a job, if you find work,
    you can be independent from Government. This welfare reform law is an
    unqualified success, and I want to thank you for your work on that, Jim.
        We share a philosophy about the role of Government. The role of
    Government is not to create wealth but an environment in which the
    entrepreneur can flourish, an environment in which the small-business
    person can dream big and take risks and realize his or her dreams of
    owning your own company in America. Jim understands small business.
        Today I was on the outskirts of the great city of St. Louis, where
    we had a chance to meet some small-business entrepreneurs, where I laid
    out a way to make the tax structure more conducive to entrepreneurial
    development. Jim Talent understands that, and it's important for
    Missouri to have a voice for the small-business person in the Halls of
    the United States Senate.
        He also understands good tax policy. If you give people their own
    money to spend, that increases demand. And when there's more demand,
    somebody meets that demand through more production, and production means
    jobs. We cut the taxes on the American people at the exact right time,
    and Jim Talent understands that. Some in Washington seem to forget whose
    money we're spending. They think it's the Government's money. What
    Talent understands, like I understand, it's the people's money.
        And one of the things we can't afford to do is to have people in
    Washington who don't like the tax cut because it diminishes the role of
    the Federal Government. I've heard some rumblings--and you might have
    heard them, too--that people say, ``Well, gosh, we're in a recession; we
    probably ought to not go through with the tax cuts,'' which in effect is
    a tax raise. They're reading the wrong economics textbook. You don't
    raise taxes when the economy is slow; you trust the people with their
    own money when the economy is slow. And that's exactly what we did in
    Washington, DC. And that's exactly the attitude Jim Talent will take
    when you send him up to represent Missouri in the United States Senate.

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        And we need to do more when it comes to tax relief, starting with
    making sure that the death tax is permanent, that we say to the American
    people, you have the right to pass on your farm or your small business
    to whoever you want to pass them on to, without getting taxed twice by
    the Federal Government. Talent understands that, and we need that kind
    of thinking in the United States Senate.
        He also understands that this Nation needs an energy policy--an
    energy policy on the one hand that encourages conservation, that uses
    our technologies to make sure we remain productive but consume less, but
    on the other hand, that we better find sources of energy at home in
    order to make us less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil. It is
    in our national security interests that we have a balanced energy
    policy. And my, do we need his vote in the United States right now when
    it comes to making sure we have a balanced energy policy.
        And so these are some of the reasons why you need to send him to the
    United States Senate: He's accomplished; he's a serious man; he's a can-
    do fellow who's got the experience to back it up; and I can't wait to
    work with him when he gets elected this fall.
        And not only do we have a big job at home, we've obviously got a big
    job abroad as well. We're fighting a war, and I want to share with you
    all some of my thoughts about this war that we fight.
        First of all, you've got to know that we're fighting against a
    determined group of killers. These are people who would rather die than
    surrender. These are people who hate America. They hate our freedom.
    They hate our freedom to worship. They hate our freedom to vote. They
    hate our freedom of the press. They hate our freedom to say what you
    want to say. They can't stand what we stand for. And therefore, we have
    no choice but to hunt them down one by one to defend the very freedom we
    hold dear in America. And that is exactly what we're going to do.
        The enemy must have thought they were hitting a society that was so
    soft, so self-absorbed, so materialistic that we would sue them.
    [Laughter] They didn't understand America. They didn't understand our
    fiber. They don't understand our core. They don't know what we're made
    out of. At least, they didn't. Now they do.
        I made it absolutely clear when we first got going that if a country
    harbored a terrorist or fed a terrorist or hid a terrorist, they were
    just as guilty as the murderers who hit us on September the 11th. And
    now the Taliban knows exactly what I meant. Thanks to a magnificent
    United States military and a vast coalition, we have routed the Taliban
    in Afghanistan. I'm proud of our military, and I'm proud of our country.
    We went into Afghanistan not to seek revenge but justice, and we went
    into that country not as conquerors but as liberators. We have freed
    Afghan people from the clutches of one of the most barbaric, backward
    regimes history has ever known.
        Later on this week, schools will reopen in Afghanistan, and
    incredibly enough, for the first time, young girls get to go to school,
    thanks to the United States and our coalition. And so the other day, in
    Washington, I declared that the first phase in our war against terror
    had ended. We upheld the doctrine of a nation harboring a terrorist and
    the consequences we made clear.
        But I want to tell you all, there is more to do. You see, there are
    still thousands of Al-Qaida-trained killers on the loose, and we will
    treat them the way they are, which is like international fugitives. We
    will deny them sanctuary. We will keep them on the run. We'll disrupt
    their finances. No matter how long it takes, we're going to get them and
    bring them to justice. There is no cave deep enough for the justice of
    the United States of America.

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        And therefore, I have submitted to the United States Congress a
    budget which makes our national security the number one priority. I've
    asked for the largest defense increase--spending on defense since 20
    years ago. And I expect Congress to pass this budget, because they've
    got to understand, if we're putting our young soldiers in harm's way,
    they deserve the best equipment, the best training, the best pay
    possible. The price of freedom is high, but as far as I'm concerned, it
    is never too high.
        And so not only do I expect Congress to support our military and
    pass this budget; I expect them to do it early, rather than late. The
    history of the United States Congress is such that they hold back the
    defense appropriations bill to the last minute. That's bad policy. It's
    bad policy in times of peace, and it's terrible policy in times of war.
    I expect and hope the first appropriation bill to my desk is to fund the
    United States military.
        There's more to the war on terror than one single individual or one
    single network. The nightmare scenario is for our Nation to tire and
    weary and allow an Al Qaida organization or an Al-Qaida-type
    organization to mate up with a nation which has developed weapons of
    mass destruction, a nation which has got a history of treating her
    people poorly, a dictatorial nation. We cannot--we cannot--allow the
    world's worst regimes to develop the world's worst weapons and therefore
    hold the United States and our allies hostage. We owe it to our children
    and our children's children to be firm and to be tough and to say to
    those bullies and dictators, ``We will not let you stand and get away
    with blackmailing the world.''
        Here's the way I view it: History has called us into action. History
    demands that this Nation honor our commitment to freedom and our love
    for freedom. We not only owe it to the citizens who live in the United
    States today to make sure that our homeland is as secure as possible--
    and make no mistake, we're doing everything we can to secure the
    homeland--but the best way to secure the homeland is to bring the
    killers to justice, no matter where they hide. We not only owe it to
    people who live in America today; we owe it to future generations of
    Americans. We owe it to children and our children's children, so they
    can grow up in a society that knows the freedom that we have loved, the
    freedom so dear to our heart. The world is looking at the United States
    of America to see whether or not we will blink. I want to assure you all
    that we won't blink, that we're going to remain diligent and firm in our
    love, in our quest and our drive to rid the world of terror.
        And I believe--and I firmly believe that when the United States
    leads, we have a chance to achieve long-lasting peace. I believe out of
    this evil will come some incredible good. I believe that by leading this
    coalition in a firm way, that we will be able to achieve peace in parts
    of the world that never dreamt they would ever see peace. I believe
    that.
        And not only that, I believe that out of this evil will come some
    incredible good at home. I believe that the evil ones have unleashed the
    great compassion of America at home. I'm oftentimes asked, ``How do I
    help in the war against terror?'' People all the time are asking here in
    America, ``What can I do?'' And my answer is this: If you want to fight
    terror, love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself. If
    you want to stand up to terror and evil, be a part of the great
    compassion of America. Reach out to a fellow citizen in need; mentor a
    child; walk across the street and say to a shut-in, ``I love you. What
    can I do to help?'' You see, it is the momentum, the gathering momentum
    of millions of acts of kindness and decency which will allow this great
    Nation to stand squarely in the face of evil, and there's no doubt in my
    mind that we can achieve that.
        The great strength of America is not in our military--although
    that's pretty good,

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    pretty strong these days. [Laughter] It is not in the Government. It is
    in the hearts and souls of the American people.
        And so I call upon you all here in St. Louis, in the great State of
    Missouri, to make an extra effort to help somebody in need. I'm
    passionate about the understanding that we must unleash faith in our
    society, not a particular faith but faith to help change hearts. And so
    one of the initiatives that I'm looking forward to working with Jim on,
    and others here, is a faith-based initiative that understands out of our
    churches and synagogues and mosques come that compassionate help that
    will define the face of America. And our Government--we must not fear
    faith; we must welcome faith as we deal with the intangible problems
    that confront every neighborhood in the country of America, the problems
    of hopelessness--the problems of addiction and hopelessness.
        When we fight abroad, we must also fight at home to make sure the
    American promise extends its reach throughout every neighborhood in our
    society. And in this country, we can achieve that. We've got to
    understand, it's not vast programs that save people's lives; it is
    saving people's lives one soul at a time that makes a difference in each
    of us. Each of us in America can make that difference.
        I also believe, out of this incredible evil, that our culture is
    beginning to change from one that has said, ``If it feels good, just go
    ahead and do it,'' and ``If you've got a problem, blame somebody else,''
    to a culture which says, ``Each of us are responsible for the decisions
    we make in life.''
        That culture begins with moms and dads loving their children with
    all their heart and all their soul. That culture begins by understanding
    that materialism is shallow and empty and that to have a full life,
    you've got to love your neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself.
    That's a culture that extends to corporate America as well. Corporate
    America has a responsibility to its citizens and a responsibility to
    make sure all the assets and liabilities are completely disclosed on
    one's balance sheet.
        Now, we have a chance--we have a chance, through the acts of
    kindness in our country, through the deep compassion that exists in our
    hearts, to change the culture of America.
        For me, probably the most defining event since September the 11th
    was on September the 11th, Flight 93. When United States citizens on
    this flight talked to their loved ones on the ground and realized what
    was taking place in the Nation's Capital, they said a prayer, they told
    their wives they loved them, they said, ``Let's roll,'' and they
    sacrificed for something greater than themselves. Americans from all
    walks of life got to see the noble cause of serving something greater
    than yourself in life. To me, the spirit on that airplane defined the
    possibilities of our country, and man, what a great country it is.
        Not only will we win the war on terror to secure the peace in the
    world; we will show the world that a diverse nation from all walks of
    life and all religions can be compassionate and kind and hopeful for
    everyone who's lucky enough to be an American citizen.
        I want to thank you all for coming and for supporting Jim Talent.
    I'm confident he can win with your help. And I want to thank you all for
    coming tonight. It gives me a chance to tell you how honored I am to be
    the President of the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.
        May God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:28 p.m. in the America's Ballroom at
    America's Center. In his remarks, he referred to William H.T. ``Bucky''
    Bush and Sam Fox, cochairs of the event, ``A Missouri Salute to
    President George W. Bush''; Jim Talent's wife, Brenda; their children
    Michael, Kate, and Chrissy; and Brenda Talent's mother, Katie Lyons.

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