    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
    [August 24, 2002]
    [Pages 1482-1489]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community in Las Cruces, New Mexico
    August 24, 2002

        The President. Thank you all. Please be seated. It's great to come
    to a place where you can see cowboy hats and belt buckles, boots. Thanks
    for letting me across the State line. [Laughter] I was just raised right
    around the corner, in Midland, Texas. So I kind of consider Las Cruces
    to be kind of home.
        But thank you all for greeting me today, and thanks for the warm
    welcome. It is my honor to be here in this beautiful State, in this
    dynamic city, to talk about the three great goals we have for this
    country--three great goals: First is to win the war on terror; second is
    to make sure that we protect our homeland; and third is to assure you
    that we will not rest until our economy is strong. Anybody who wants to
    find work must be able to find work in this country. We're going to help
    this economy grow.
        And this is a great place to talk about the strength of America.
    It's a great place to come to talk about the fact that, even though
    we've got challenges, we can overcome these challenges because we're
    Americans. We work hard. We have great values. We're optimistic people.
    There is no challenge that we can't overcome. And the people of this
    great part of the country understand that as well as anybody else.
        I want to thank my friend the senior Senator, Pete
    Domenici. He's a fine, fine

    [[Page 1483]]

    man. Not only is he a fine man, he is a great United States Senator. And
    not only is he is a great United States Senator, he loves New Mexico a
    lot.
        And then, of course, there's the retiring Congressman, Joe
    Skeen, who has brought such class to the office
    of--that he has held. We're real proud of Joe. We're proud of his
    courage. We're proud of his strength. We're going to miss him in
    Washington, DC, but Washington, DC's loss is your gain. He and
    Mary love this part of the country, and he's
    going to have a lot of farewells. This is not his farewell speech from
    me, but nevertheless, it's my honor to talk in front of his constituents
    and tell him how much we love him and how much we care for he and Mary.
    Joe, thanks for coming today. [Applause] They sure love you, Joe.
        Jay, I want to thank you very much for
    inviting me and this small entourage I travel with--[laughter]--to this
    very important campus. It's--New Mexico State has got a proud
    reputation, and you've made it even more proud, Jay. And I appreciate
    your service. I want to thank all the folks who helped put this event
    on, particularly in this beautiful facility, where I guess the Aggies
    tend to dominate.
        I want to thank Ruben Smith, the mayor of
    Las Cruces, for being here. Mayor Smith, thank you for your time. Dora
    Dominguez, the president of the Greater Las
    Cruces Chamber, helped put on this event, and I'm most grateful for the
    Chamber members who are here. I want to thank very much Sara
    Misquez, who is the president of the Mescalero
    Apache Tribe, who is with us today. I appreciate Jesus Segura, who is the mayor of Sunland Park.
        I want to thank very much a special person who met me out there at
    the airport, Ophelia Chaffino. She is a USA
    Freedom Corps volunteer. She is a foster grandparent who tutors 4th and
    5th year-olds. Let me tell you why I want to bring up the--Ophelia and
    people like her. Because I understand, and I hope you understand, the
    great strength of our country is not our governments. The great strength
    of our country is our people. And when people--and people can make a
    significant difference in all kinds of ways in the communities in which
    they live. The fact that Ophelia wants to mentor children is a
    significant contribution.
        Oh, you know, some may step back and say, ``Changing one life isn't
    that much.'' Changing one life is a lot--a lot. And I want to thank the
    soldiers in the armies of compassion which exist in Las Cruces, all
    across New Mexico, and all across our country, for working hard to make
    our society a compassionate and decent place. Where are you,
    Ophelia? Thank you for being here. Please
    stand up and wave.
        I appreciate so very much Ruben King-Shaw, Jr., who works for the Health and Human Services
    Administration, being with us today. Why don't you stand up, Ruben? I'm
    going to say something about you. Ruben is here to make sure that we
    improve health care for the people of New Mexico. You can sit down,
    Ruben. [Laughter] Ruben is a good man. I've known him--I'm proud that he
    came up and worked in my administration. He also has got a big heart.
        One of the concerns we have is that nearly half of low-income adults
    here in New Mexico are uninsured. And that's a problem--and that's a
    problem. Most of the uninsured adults are Latinos or Hispanic. And so
    what Ruben did was, he came to approve an application that will allow
    for, the best way to put it is creative financing, to make sure that
    40,000 additional adults in this State are able to get health insurance,
    to work with the State and Senator Domenici
    to provide a plan so that more of your citizens will be able to have
    health insurance. And Ruben, I want to
    thank you for taking time off of your vacation to come and work that
    plan and implement it so that the good folks in New Mexico have got a
    better quality of life. Thank you for coming.

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        No, as Pete mentioned, we've got some
    hurdles to cross here in the country. We've got some issues we have to
    deal with. One of the issues, of course, is our economy. When I came in,
    the country was beginning a recession. It's just a fact. We had three
    quarters of negative growth. And then the terrorists hit us, and that
    affected our economy. And then something bubbled to the service that had
    been brewing for a while: We found out some of our citizens wanted to
    cook the books. Some of our citizens didn't feel like they could do it
    the honest way. They had to try to slide one by us. Corporate scandals
    erupted.
        We've had three major challenges to job creation in the country. But
    you need to know, we're going to deal with it, and we're going to deal
    with it in a strong way. My view is, the role of Government is not to
    create wealth, but the role of Government is to create an environment in
    which small businesses and entrepreneurs and farmers and ranchers can
    prosper, so we can create jobs around the country.
        And one of the things we did together--and I'm talking about
    Republicans and Democrats--is we took a page out of this textbook that
    said, ``If you want to try to encourage job creation, if you want the
    economy to grow, you let hard-working people keep more of their own
    money.'' Pete and I and Joe have read that textbook. Some in Washington haven't.
    [Laughter] We understand if you let a person keep more of their own
    money--by the way, you notice I don't say ``keep more of the
    Government's money.'' It's not the Government's money we're talking
    about. It's the people's money. If people keep more of their own money,
    it means somebody is going to demand a good or a service. And if
    somebody demands a good and service, somebody is likely to produce that
    good or service, and when somebody produces that good and service,
    somebody's more likely to find work. The tax relief that we passed
    happened right at the right time. And for the sake of economic vitality
    and job creation, we need to make the tax relief permanent.
        And at the same time, my job is to work with fine Members like
    Senator Domenici and make sure that we
    don't overspend. We want to make sure that we're fiscally responsible.
    That doesn't mean that we can't set priorities and fund those
    priorities, and we will. But as Pete will tell you, every idea is a good
    idea in Washington, no matter what it costs. [Laughter] My job is to
    make sure that the good ideas that meet our priorities are funded, like
    fighting and winning the war on terror, protecting the homeland, and
    taking care of people who can't help themselves, and education--our
    children. Those are the priorities.
        We need to work together. When they get back out of their break and
    when they get back to Washington, they need to work to put some of our
    construction people back to work, by passing a terrorism insurance bill,
    one that will allow large-scale construction programs to go forward that
    aren't going forward because they can't get insurance necessary to cover
    a possible terrorist attack. And by the way, the bill ought to be more
    worried about the hardhats than the lawyers. This ought to be a bill
    that is aimed to help the working people.
        We need to make sure that we've got pension reform. A lot of you all
    have got assets tied up in what they call 401(k)s or IRAs, but if you're
    in a 401(k) and you're working for a company and the boss sells, you
    ought to sell. By the way, I've just signed, in a new law, that type of
    provision. It says what's good for one is good for all. If it's good for
    the head man, it ought to be good for everybody else working for the
    company.
        But we also need to have a law to allow people to diversify. We
    shouldn't force people who work for a company and who get company stock
    to have to stay in that stock forever. After a reasonable period of
    time, they ought to be able to diversify their portfolio. They ought to
    get sound investment advice, and they ought to get reports

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    on a quarterly basis, not an annual basis. In order to make the economy
    stronger, we need to have pension reform on behalf of the workers of
    this country.
        Thirdly, I just got a new bill that will allow me to encourage
    trade. Let me explain my position on trade, and I'll start with
    something that's dear to the people of this part of the world, and
    that's agriculture. The good news for America is, we grow enough food to
    feed ourselves. That's good news. Imagine what it would be like if we
    didn't grow enough food to feed ourselves, if we had to go around the
    world asking for food. We'd be a little more vulnerable as a nation.
        It's good for our national security that we've got enough food to
    feed ourselves. But we've got more than we need, because we're the best
    in the world at growing things. Our farmers and ranchers are the best in
    the world. And if you're the best in the world at something, you ought
    to encourage it. And so, therefore, my job is to open up markets for
    U.S. agricultural products. It is the best way to allow our producers to
    make a living. It is in our Nation's interest we do so.
        And people say, ``Well, of course, he's going to say that, but that
    hasn't been the way it's been.'' And I understand that. I know there's
    some skepticism about level playing fields. And I know a lot of the
    farmers and ranchers and some from other industries have said, ``Well,
    we've heard that song and dance before.'' But you've just got to know
    how I think. If you're good at something, we're going to promote it, and
    we ought to start from our strength when it comes to enhancing job
    creation and creating wealth through trade, and that is agriculture.
        And let me just give you one example of what I'm talking about. We
    grow a lot of chickens here in America. [Laughter] Well, we do.
    [Laughter] And the Russians decided they were going to--they thought
    about buying our chickens. Then we got the chickens moving, and they
    changed their mind. And I talked to President Putin quite a bit about that. So one time at one of our
    press conferences, he said, ``Listen, our relationship has changed so
    much, we're no longer talking war; we're talking chickens.'' [Laughter]
    Two days ago, our Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, announced that the Russians are going to buy all the
    chickens they said they would buy. That's good for chicken producers.
    It's good for hog producers. It's good for cattle producers. It's good
    for America. It's good for America that we open up markets to sell our
    products. It's going to mean jobs for the working people of this
    country.
        It's commonsense policy. And the other day I had a chance to lay out
    a little bit of commonsense policy which affects the folks in the
    northern part of your State that Pete and I
    just talked about. We're having some serious fires here in America. One
    of our most precious resources, our forests, are burning up. And one of
    the reasons they're burning up is because we're doing a lousy job of
    maintaining our forests; we're doing a lousy job of maintaining our
    treasure. We've got to change our forest policy.
        Our forest policy now says, ``Hands off.'' And guess what happens
    when you have a hands-off policy--your forests become diseased; they end
    up like a big pile of kindling. And all it takes is one lightning
    strike.
        I flew over the huge fire in Oregon. I mean, thousands and thousands
    of precious forest lands are burning. For the sake of a healthy forest,
    for the sake of leaving a legacy for future generations, we will change
    the forest policy of this country to thin the forest lands to keep them
    healthy.
        And finally, I had the honor of signing the most comprehensive
    corporate reform bill since Franklin Roosevelt was the President. It's a
    long time ago, it seems like. But it was needed. It was when Republican
    and Democrats came together. It's a good piece of legislation which said
    the auditors will be audited; crooked people are going

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    to be held to account. We don't want anybody taking advantage of
    trustworthy people. For the sake of economic vitality and job creation,
    for the sake of confidence in our system, we're going to rout those out
    who cook the books. It's no longer going to be easy money; it's going to
    be hard time for people who have not upheld their responsibility.
        We've got hurdles to cross, but I'm confident in the future of this
    country. I'm confident in our economic vitality, because I know our
    people and I understand the entrepreneurial spirit. I know the fact that
    we're the best and most productive workers in the world. We are. I know
    that low interest rates and low inflation provide the platform for
    economic vitality. We're just not going to rest. We're not going to rest
    until people are able to find work, people who are looking for work can
    find work.
        And I'm not going to rest when it comes to protecting our homeland
    either. That's my most important job, is to prevent people from hitting
    us again. I say ``people''--I say ``people''--let me qualify that--
    coldblooded killers. That's all they are. There's no other way to say
    it. There's no other apt description than to tell you exactly how I
    think they are, and they're coldblooded killers. And they want to kill
    again because they hate what we love, and we love freedom.
        We love the fact that people can worship freely in America. We
    respect the fact that people worship freely in America. They don't value
    life. We value life. We say, ``Everybody counts in America. Everybody is
    precious in this land.'' So long as they're out there, we've got to do
    everything we can to protect the homeland. And you need to know there's
    a lot of good folks working hard to do just that, good folks at the
    Federal level and at the State level and the local level.
        I mean, anytime we're getting a hint, we're acting on it. Anytime we
    get a whisper that somebody might be thinking about doing something to
    America, people are on it. And we're following every lead. People are
    working hard. But I want to take a step further, and I've asked Congress
    to join me in setting up a Department of Homeland Security. And let me
    explain to you why I made that suggestion.
        There are over 100 agencies in Washington, scattered all over
    Washington, I might add, that have got something to do with homeland
    security. And it seems logical to me that if the number one priority of
    this administration--and by the way, future administrations--is to
    protect the homeland, then we ought to have the capacity to make that
    the number one priority of the other 100 agencies. You see, you can't
    just say, ``That's your priority,'' and everybody snaps to. The best way
    to get them to snap to is to put them under one Secretary of Homeland
    Security. And that's what we intend to do.
        But let me tell you something, what I'm not going to do is accept a
    bill that tries to micromanage the process, tell us who to hire, where
    to move them, and how to do it. I warn the Senate--and Pete--I'm not warning Pete, because he understands what
    I'm talking about. He knows who I'm talking about. There are Senators
    who are more worried about the special interests in Washington than they
    are about protecting the people. They're more interested in their turf
    than they are about homeland security. And they need to get me a good
    bill. I can count on him.
        But the best way to protect the homeland--we're going to work hard
    to do this--we're going to make sure our border--we need to know who's
    coming in the country, what are they bringing in the country, if they're
    leaving the country when they say they're going to leave the country. We
    need to have a strong first-responders initiative to work with the
    mayors and the county judges and the sheriff's departments to be able to
    respond. We need to work closely with some of our labs to devise ways to
    be able to detect and respond to a bioterrorist attack, for example, or
    the use of

    [[Page 1487]]

    weapons of mass destruction. There's a lot we're going to do.
        But my theory is and my strategy is--and it's the way it's going to
    be so long as I'm the President--the way to best protect the homeland is
    to hunt the killers down one by one and bring them to justice. And so I
    submitted a budget, an appropriations request to the Congress that was
    the largest defense increase since Ronald Reagan was the President.
        I did it for two reasons--two reasons: One, anytime we put our
    soldiers into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best training,
    and the best equipment possible. We not only owe it to the men and women
    who wear our uniform; we owe that to their loved ones as well. The other
    reason I submitted this budget is because I wanted to tell our friends
    and allies and enemy alike that we're in this deal for the long haul.
    See, when it comes to defending freedom, there is no calendar that says
    you've got to quit by such-and-such a date. That this--history has
    called us to action, and we're going to stay on course, stay steady,
    until we have achieved the mission, which is to make the world free, to
    defend our freedoms.
        Now, I understand that this is a different kind of war, and I hope
    you do as well. You see, no longer are we able to count the size of the
    enemy by counting tanks or airplanes or ships. This is an enemy which
    hides in caves and then sends youngsters to their suicidal death. These
    people kind of run and scatter. So it's a different kind of mission;
    it's a different kind of war. But we've got a strategy. And they
    understand the strategy is, get them on the run, and once we get them on
    the run, don't let them light anyplace. And if they do try to light
    someplace, bring them to justice. And that's precisely what the United
    States is going to do.
        Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
        The President. And so my request to the Congress--and I know
    Pete agrees with me--is to get the defense
    bill to my desk as soon as they get back. We need to get the defense
    bill signed. See, the Senate passed it, and the House passed it. They
    need to get the differences quickly. We're at war. We need to send that
    signal loud and clear to our troops and to the world, that we're
    strongly united in this effort to win the war against terror.
        I say it's hard to count, but I've got kind of an idea of how we're
    doing. I say ``kind of.'' We estimate that over 2,500 or--of the enemy
    have been captured by the United States or our friends and allies. And
    remember, we've got a huge coalition of countries that are working
    together to cut their money off or to share intelligence, put pressure.
    And the--we've got about 2,500 of them or so, maybe a little more than
    that, that are now in captivity, that are no longer in caves, that
    aren't able to fight. And just about that many weren't as lucky.
        We will continue to uphold the doctrine that says, ``If you harbor
    one of them, you're just as guilty as those who killed American
    citizens.'' We will be relentless and patient and strong and determined
    and wise about how we conduct this war. And we're going to win the war
    on terror. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren; that's who
    we owe it to. We owe it to them as well to make sure that the world's
    worst leaders are not able to develop and deploy the world's worst
    weapons. We've got a lot of work to do. But I'm proud of our military,
    and I'm proud of our team, and we're going to get the job done.
        I believe that out of the evil done to America is going to come some
    incredible good. I believe that. I know it's going to happen, because
    we're America. I can't imagine what was going through the enemy's mind
    when they hit us. They must have thought, ``That Nation is so self-
    absorbed and so materialistic, so shallow in its beliefs, so selfish,
    that after 9/11 all they

    [[Page 1488]]

    might do is file a lawsuit or two.'' [Laughter] They found out different
    about America. They understand--they're beginning to learn the character
    of this Nation. They and our allies and the enemy understand that when
    we go into a country, we go in not as conquerors but as liberators.
        I want you all to tell your children: This great Nation, in
    liberating Afghanistan, made it possible for young girls, many young
    girls for the first time in their life, to be able to go to school.
    They're learning that this Nation does not seek revenge; we seek
    justice. And we will all learn, by being strong and tough and diligent
    and compassionate, we can achieve peace.
        In the midst of all this talk--in the midst of all this talk, I want
    you all to tell your children that this country of ours yearns for
    peace, that we want peace for not only this generation but future
    generations to come. Oh, the hill might be steep at times. It might be a
    rugged terrain, like you're used to out here in New Mexico, but we're
    going to cross that terrain to achieve peace--not only peace for
    ourselves, but, see, we value life all around the world. When we say we
    value life and everybody counts, it's not just American lives; it's
    lives in every part of the world.
        I believe we can achieve peace by routing out terror and professing
    the God-given values--not American values--God-given values that matter
    to everybody. I believe we can achieve peace in parts of the world that
    have quit on peace.
        I believe out of the evil done to America can come some incredible
    good here at home, besides peace. See, ours is a great country, full of
    hope. But we've got to recognize there are pockets of despair and
    addiction and hopelessness. We've got to understand that when one hurts,
    all hurt. We have a chance, I believe, to take the evil done to America
    and convert it to great good. Because--well, let me put it to you this
    way: People say, ``What can I do to help?'' You know what you can do to
    help? You can love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself.
    That's what you can do.
        Oftentimes we look to Government, but Government can hand out money,
    but it cannot put hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in
    people's lives. No, it's those millions of acts of kindness and decency
    that take place in America which really and truly define the true
    character of the country and enable me to predict that out of the evil
    done to America will come some good.
        You see, mentoring a child is part of helping change America for the
    better. We can change our society, one person at a time. I hear people
    say, ``I can't do everything.'' Of course you can't, but you can do
    something. You can do something to help change America, one lost soul at
    a time.
        And that's happening in this country; it really is. People are
    beginning to understand there is a different kind of patriotism alive in
    America. It's the patriotism that's much bigger than just putting your
    hand over your heart and saying ``one Nation under God.'' It's a
    patriotism that says, serving something greater than yourself is part of
    being a patriotic American. It's a patriotism that understands that
    you're responsible for the decisions you make in life. And if you happen
    to be fortunate to be a mom or a dad, love your child with all your
    heart and all your soul. Tell them you love them every single day, in
    order to make America a more compassionate and more decent place.
        It's a patriotism that says, each of us have a responsibility to the
    quality of life in the communities in which we live. Help your schools.
    Go to your churches or synagogues and help feed the hungry. That's what
    the patriotism is, and it's alive and well and was best exemplified on
    that fateful, horrible day, September the 11th, when some of our fellow
    citizens on a flight that was flying across the country realized the
    plane they were on was to be used as a weapon, a weapon perhaps at the
    White

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    House or at our Nation's Capitol. History shows that they were on cell
    phones, and they told their loved ones they loved them. Some of the last
    words they said were ``love.'' They said a prayer. One guy said, ``Let's
    roll.'' And they served something greater than themselves in life. They
    set an example for all of us here in America.
        No, out of the evil done to America is going to come incredible
    good, because this is the most compassionate, decent, strong nation on
    the face of the Earth.
        May God bless you all, and may God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:15 p.m. in the Pan American Center at New
    Mexico State University. In his remarks, he referred to Mary Skeen, wife
    of Representative Joe Skeen; Jay Gogue, president, New Mexico State
    University; and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The Office of the
    Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these
    remarks.