[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[August 7, 2002]
[Pages 1357-1364]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1357]]


Remarks at Madison Central High School in Madison, Mississippi
August 7, 2002

    Thanks for a warm welcome. Thanks for having me. It's true, 
Congressman, I did bring 
Laura her coffee this morning. [Laughter] The 
only thing that was different from the past is, I brought it to her in 
Crawford, Texas. [Laughter] I have moved my office to Crawford, and I'm 
so honored my first stop after having moved my office to Crawford is in 
the great State of Mississippi.
    I want to thank you all for coming. I want to talk about three 
important goals for our country: One, win the war on terror; two, to 
protect the homeland; and three, to make it clear we will not rest until 
we have economic security for everybody who lives in America.
    That's a goal shared by the Mississippians for Economic Progress, 
and I want to thank them for hosting me today. I appreciate you all 
coming. I also want to thank the Congressman for introducing me. I also 
appreciate so very much two fine--I mean fine--United States Senators 
from the great State of Mississippi who are here, and that's, of course, 
Thad Cochran and the man I call Leader, Trent 
Lott. I want to thank very much Ronnie 
Shows for being here. Congressman, thank you 
for coming. I'm honored you're here. I appreciate it. And I want to 
thank Roger Wicker, another member of the 
Mississippi congressional delegation, for coming. We've got Congressmen 
everywhere. [Laughter]
    But there's one special former Congressman with us. It's a man--when 
I'm in Washington, I go to church right across the street from the White 
House, and this fellow always saves me a pew--a spot in the pew. He's 
been a great friend of my family's. He's a great friend of Mississippi. 
He is the namesake of the Montgomery Institute in Meridian, Mississippi, 
and that's Sonny Montgomery. 
[Applause] It looks like they still remember you, Sonny--[laughter]--and 
love you, just like I do.
    I want to thank members of the statehouse for coming. The 
Governor kindly came out to greet me today, 
and I'm thankful for the Governor for being there. I want to thank the 
Lieutenant Governor, Governor Tuck, for coming 
today. I want to appreciate the State senator, Travis Little, and all the other members of the statehouse who are 
here. It makes me feel welcome for you to come and to greet me. I thank 
you from the bottom of my heart.
    I also want to thank the mayors who are here. Mayor Mary Hawkins-
Butler of Madison is here. I want to 
thank you, Madam Mayor, for coming. And Mayor Gene McGee, the mayor of Ridgeland, Mississippi, is here. David 
Allen is the vice chairman of the Mississippians 
for Economic Progress, who gathered you all up. And I want to thank you, 
David, and your group for supporting this event.
    I want to thank J. Reeves, who is the 
principal of the Madison Central High School, for having us. I want to 
thank the Madison High band. Listen, you all were great when you 
serenaded us coming in. [Laughter] I tried to pop out of the limousine--
[laughter]--to say thanks, but it was moving a little too fast. 
[Laughter] But I do want to thank you all. The principal was telling me 
you're an award-winning band, and I so much appreciate the fact that you 
played. Unfortunately, most band members are in the overflow room, so if 
you're listening, thanks. I also want to thank Mike Kent, who is the Madison County superintendent of education.
    I want to thank the folks who I just met with, Mississippi citizens 
from all walks of life who expressed their concerns to me on a variety 
of issues. And I'll be discussing some of those issues. I met with some 
of the kindest, most decent doctors you can

[[Page 1358]]

possibly imagine who are with us today, people who love their 
communities, love their profession, are deeply concerned about the 
future of medicine in this State.
    I met WorldCom employees who no longer have work, who are 
disillusioned, like me and others, about the corporate fraud which is 
taking place in our country. I met with small-business owners who long 
to have an environment that will allow them to flourish. So I want to 
thank them for coming. I'm going to talk more about some of the issues 
around these participants. But you've got some fine folks in this State, 
and they took time to visit and share their frustrations with me. I want 
to thank them all for coming today, very much.
    I also want to welcome Star Wallin here. One 
of the things I love to do as I travel the country is to meet soldiers 
in the armies of compassion, people who have heard the call to love a 
neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves; people who don't 
wait for a President to say, ``You will go love somebody,'' or Congress 
to pass a law; people who understand that part of being an American is 
to serve your community by helping people in need.
    Star is here. She's the founder of what's 
called Project CARE, Compassion in Action creates a Ripple Effect for 
positive change. The unusual thing about Star is, she's 18 years old. 
She has--that's not unusual; there's a lot of 18-year-olds. [Laughter] 
What is unusual is, is that she is signing up people who went to her 
school to help people in need. As a result of her vision and her work 
and her compassion, 300 elementary school students were mentored by 
upperclassmen. The 300 benefited, as did the mentors. As a result of her 
vision, she has rallied people to feed the needy, to provide furniture 
for those who want. She has helped restore playgrounds on public 
schools. As a result of her vision, her community is better. She has set 
a fabulous example. Star, thank you for being here, and thank you for 
what you do. And I want to thank your family for being here as well. 
They did a pretty darn good job of raising you.
    My most important job as the President of this country is to protect 
the homeland. My most important job is to rally our governments to do 
everything humanly possible to prevent the enemy from taking innocent 
life again. That job goes on because the enemy still exists, an enemy 
that hates freedom and therefore hates America, people who can't stand 
the thought that we worship freely in this country and therefore hate 
us, coldblooded killers who don't value life the way we value life. And 
so they're still a threat to the homeland. There is still a threat that 
they might attack us again. And therefore, you need to know that your 
Government is doing everything humanly possible. A lot of fine folks are 
working overtime doing everything humanly possible to run down every 
hint, every lead, every piece of evidence to protect the homeland.
    I got to Washington, and after being there for a while, I took a 
look at the homeland security apparatus there in the Nation's Capital. 
There are over 100 different agencies involved with homeland security. 
As I like to say, they're scattered everywhere. And if they're scattered 
everywhere, it makes it hard to hold people accountable. And we need 
accountability all throughout Government--nothing more important, 
though, than to have accountability when it comes to protecting the 
homeland. I felt like, having taken a look at the situation, that in 
order to set the number one priority of all those agencies as the 
protection of the homeland, they needed to be under one agency, one 
Cabinet officer. And so I proposed to the country, to the Congress, that 
we have a Department of Homeland Security that will be in charge, 
enforcing our borders. Listen, we need to know who's coming in the 
country, what they're bringing in the country, why they're coming into 
the country, and if they're leaving when they're supposed to be leaving 
the country.

[[Page 1359]]

    We need to work with our courageous first-responders, the 
firefighters and the police and the EMS teams, all across our country to 
prepare--prepare as best as we possibly can for emergency. We need to be 
prepared to respond to a terrorism attack using weapons of mass 
destruction. We need to better coordinate intelligence. We get 
intelligence gathered here and there, and we need somebody to analyze 
this, to address the vulnerabilities--assess the vulnerabilities so that 
we can address them to make the homeland more secure. That's a major 
task of the office of homeland security.
    This isn't a Republican issue, folks. This isn't a Democrat issue. 
This is an American issue. This is what we need to do. We need to leave 
a legacy behind. And when we create the Department, we've got to do it 
right. See, we're trying to leave a legacy not only for future 
Presidents but future Congress, so they can deal with the true threats 
of the 21st century. We're in a different era here.
    And you need to know that I'm not interested in having to try to run 
a clumsy, slow-moving bureaucracy, that when we fashion a new 
Department, we must be able to react. We've got to be able to put the 
right people in the right job at the right time, without a thick book of 
rules that have little to do with protecting the American people.
    The number one priority of this agency must be the protection of the 
people, as opposed to representing narrow political interests. I want to 
thank the Members of the House of Representatives who heard that 
message, who put their political turf aside and focused on the American 
people. Now the Senate must hear the message. These two Senators have 
heard the message, and I want to thank them for their leadership--I want 
to thank them for their leadership. The leadership of the Senate must 
focus on what's best for America, not what's best on narrow interests, 
and get a bill to my desk that will enable me to say to the American 
people, ``We're doing everything we can to protect the homeland.''
    The best way to protect the homeland in the long run is to hunt the 
killers down one by one and bring them to justice, which is what we're 
going to do. This is a different kind of war. The leaders hide in caves 
and send youngsters to their death. But there's no cave deep enough, no 
cave dark enough for an America, a resolved America, that loves our 
freedom. And so no matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost 
might be, for the sake of our freedom and for the sake of our children 
and our children's children, we're going to hunt them down. These are 
nothing but international criminals, and they're going to be treated as 
international criminals.
    And we're making good progress. We really are. It's hard to tell it 
sometimes, because as we make progress, sometimes it doesn't get on your 
cable channel. [Laughter] But you need to know we're making progress. 
We've hauled in or captured--and I say ``we''--we've got a mighty 
coalition of countries from around the world that love freedom just like 
we love freedom, and they understand the true threats that we face. And 
we've captured over 2,000 of them in a pretty quick period of time. 
Another group of them, just about the same number, weren't quite as 
lucky.
    But we've got a lot of work to do. I want the youngsters here, the 
high school students here, to know that we seek--we don't seek revenge; 
we seek justice. And when we go into a country, we do so not to conquer 
but to liberate. There are young girls going to school in Afghanistan 
for the first time, thanks to the mighty Government--mighty United 
States military and our friends and allies. And that's important for you 
to remember.
    We face threats because we love freedom. Al Qaida represents 
threats, and we're dealing with them. There are countries which harbor 
and develop weapons of mass destruction, countries run by people who

[[Page 1360]]

poison their own people, countries whose leadership has got a terrible 
record when it comes to valuing life, particularly inside their own 
country. And these are real threats, and we owe it to our children to 
deal with these threats.
    I will promise you that I am--will be patient and deliberate, that 
we will continue to consult with Congress, and of course, we'll consult 
with our friends and allies. We will discuss these threats in real 
terms, and I will explore all options and all tools at my disposal, 
diplomacy, international pressure, perhaps the military. But it's 
important for my fellow citizens to know that as we see threats 
evolving, we will deal with them. We must deal with them. History has 
called us into action. We love freedom, and we'll deal with the threats 
that could eventually hurt our freedoms.
    I've asked for the biggest increase in defense spending since Ronald 
Reagan was the President for two reasons. One, anytime we commit our 
troops into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best training, 
the best equipment possible. And two, the defense budget sends a signal 
to our friends, allies, and to the enemy that we're in this for the long 
haul, that we love our freedom so much that we're in it for the long 
pull.
    I appreciate the fact that the House of Representatives has passed 
the defense appropriations bill and the Senate has passed a defense 
appropriations bill. But taking care of our military must be the first 
order of business when Congress returns back to Washington. We owe the 
military every tool they need and every dollar it takes to win this war. 
And therefore, I call upon the leadership of the Congress to resolve, 
quickly resolve the differences between the House appropriations bill 
for defense and the Senate appropriations bill for defense and get that 
bill to my desk first thing when they get back so I can sign it.
    I'm going to continue to work to build the economics--the 
foundations for economic security for our people. And I believe the 
foundation is strong. Listen, our economy is growing. It's getting 
better. Inflation is low. The great news--and I'm not surprised at 
this--is that worker productivity is increasing dramatically. I'm not 
surprised because I know the American people. I know that the true 
strength of the country is our people. But listen, so long as anybody is 
looking for work and can't find work, I think we've got a problem. When 
somebody is out there who says, ``I want to work and can't find a job,'' 
we need to do something about it. Look, the role of Government is not to 
create wealth but an environment in which the economy can grow. 
Everybody here knows this: We're not going to tax our way to prosperity; 
we won't regulate our way to prosperity; we certainly won't litigate our 
way to prosperity. What we need to do is to always ask the question, 
``How do we increase job growth and honest enterprise--and honest 
enterprise?''
    When I took office, our economy was beginning a recession. That's 
what the facts have shown. Then our economy was hit by terrorists. Then 
our economy was hit by corporate scandals. But I'm certain of this: We 
won't let fear undermine our economy, and we're not going to let fraud 
undermine it either.
    I appreciate the work of both Republicans and Democrats to pass the 
biggest corporate reforms since Franklin Roosevelt was the President. 
And I had the honor of signing that and working with members of both 
parties to get this bill done. We're going to make sure the books are 
honest, the numbers are real, the auditors are audited, and the 
criminals are punished. And the task force I put together is beginning 
to make progress. They're investigating, arresting, and will soon be 
prosecuting those who have betrayed the trust of employee and 
shareholder alike. For corporate leaders found guilty of fraud and 
theft, there will be no more easy money, just hard time.
    And here in Mississippi, you know what I'm talking about. You know 
what it means

[[Page 1361]]

to be let down by shady corporate practices. Two of the good folks with 
whom I met earlier today had been let down by shady corporate practices. 
They lost their jobs and a good portion of their retirement funds 
because there was corporate malfeasance. They were cooking the books. 
They weren't open and honest. People who dedicate their lives to 
building the company who hired them deserve better, not only here in 
Mississippi but all over the country. People who invested in a local 
company because of State pride deserve better. By raising the standards 
of conduct in corporate America, we're going to protect the jobs. By 
holding people accountable, we'll protect jobs and, as importantly, 
retirement security all across the country.
    And speaking about that, we've got to do more to protect worker 
pensions. Right now too many workers are locked into plans that force 
them to hold a large portion of their accounts in their company stock. 
There are a lot of plans that won't let people diversify, and that's not 
right. I believe workers ought to be able to diversify after 3 years in 
their company's plan. I think we ought to trust workers with their own 
money. Right now workers get an update every year. They ought to get 
updates every 3 months on their plan. They should be able to get sound 
investment advice. After all, it's their money.
    I proposed these reforms months ago. The House acted. The Senate 
hasn't. The Senate leadership, those who are running the Senate now, 
ought to bring these worker reforms forward. They ought to get this 
pension reform bill up and to my desk as soon as they get back from 
their vacations. And I'm not talking about the Senate leaders here on 
the front row, either. [Laughter]
    Here in Mississippi you're learning a hard lesson, that one of the 
biggest obstacles to growth is the lawsuit industry. That's one industry 
we don't want to see grow. Junk and frivolous lawsuits can ruin an 
honest business. Listen, small business is the backbone of our society. 
Most new jobs are created by small business. And when you have junk and 
frivolous lawsuits that could completely wipe out a small business 
hanging over the heads of small-business people, it doesn't help. It 
hurts economic vitality and economic growth, and you've got to 
understand that.
    And in this State, the lawsuit industry is devastating the practice 
of medicine. And people around the country understand this is happening 
here. They're getting the message that the fastest growing industry is 
the lawsuit industry. Too many frivolous lawsuits in this State are 
being filed against doctors. That's a fact. And too many jury awards are 
out of control. You've got too many of your doctors that are being 
forced to settle cases for large amounts of money even when they haven't 
committed an error. And that's not right, because you know who it hurts? 
It hurts the people; it hurts the people of Mississippi. It causes 
medicine, the cost of medicine, to go up, and that means people have to 
pay more money out of their pocket--all people. You may not think so, 
but it's a hidden cost of your health care bill.
    You know what else it does? Because premiums go up or liabilities 
are threatening--lawsuits are threatening doctors--I mean, some of the 
docs can't get insurance coverage, which means they no longer want to 
provide care. And that hurts people too. Not only does excessive 
lawsuits cause your bill to go up, it makes it awfully hard for people 
in some parts of your State to even get medical care. And that's a 
crime, and that's a shame.
    And that's a problem here in Mississippi and in other States too. I 
just met with some Mississippi doctors. These are people that love their 
communities and care deeply for their patients. But they are practicing 
their medicine in the face of hostile legal environments. These are good 
docs who can't get liability insurance or--giving up their specialties 
or leaving their practices to go somewhere else. It's estimated by

[[Page 1362]]

some that this great State could lose 10 percent of your physicians this 
year, unless you do something about it.
    I want to tell you about Dr. Kooyer. He's 
sitting right out there. He and his wife went 
to Rolling Fork, Mississippi, in the heart of the Delta. They did 
because, as he said, he felt a Christian calling to care for children, 
children who need help. That's what he heard. Not only did he have 
skills, he's got a heart. But because of frivolous lawsuits, because 
every time he turns the corner somebody might sue him and because of his 
rising liability insurance premiums, he's leaving your State. He doesn't 
want to leave your State. He loves Mississippi. He loves helping those 
who need help. He loves being a pediatrician, and so does his wife, but 
he's had it. And so he's leaving, which means there will be no 
pediatrician in that county in Mississippi. And that's a shame. Lawsuits 
are driving them out of your State. It's hurting people. It's not 
hurting big institutions; it's hurting the people.
    Dr. Frothingham--you talk about a man 
with a heart. You think Kooyer has got a heart? Wait until you hear 
Frothingham. [Laughter] He's a great Mississippian, grew up here, 
thought he might try to live in South Carolina, realized what he was 
missing, came back to Mississippi. [Laughter] He's a neurosurgeon. He 
talked with deep compassion about a man who suffered a trauma, a fellow 
he was with--Johnny was with us today. He's a guy who understands that 
practicing medicine is more than just technology. It's concern and care. 
They're running him out of business. There's too many frivolous 
lawsuits. And that hurts the State, and it hurts the country. It hurts 
people.
    Jill Mahaffey says she got lucky. She and 
her husband are here. They live in the Delta too. She got lucky. She 
heard she's pregnant. She's getting there, getting ready. She goes to 
the doctor. He says, ``I've got to leave''--ob-gyn getting ready to 
leave because of lawsuits, because of the threats, because even if 
you're a doctor who practices good medicine, you're going to get sued in 
this State and in other States. Believe this or not, fortunately, she 
was getting toxic, and the doc induced labor before he quit his 
practice. She says she was lucky, and she was.
    But these human stories, these stories of people going without or 
could go without have got to end in this country. And it's not just in 
Mississippi. There are other States being affected by the lawsuit 
industry, and we need to do something about it. This State needs to do 
something about it, and so does Washington, DC, need to do something 
about these frivolous lawsuits.
    Well, some say, ``That's not a Federal issue. Here you are in 
Mississippi. You're talking about Mississippi's problem. Leave it in 
Mississippi.'' That's a Federal issue. I'll tell you why. If you agree 
with me that these junk lawsuits run up the cost of medicine, then it 
becomes a Federal issue when you realize all the dollars we spend on 
Medicare. It's a Federal issue when you think about all the money we 
spend on Medicaid to help people. It's a Federal issue when you think 
about all the veterans hospitals around the country.
    No, it's a Federal issue, and it's time for the Congress to pass a 
minimum Federal standard which says this: One, if you're hurt, you ought 
to have your day in court, and you ought to be able to recover full 
economic damages--no problem about that. Everybody agrees with that. If 
you get hurt, you ought to be able to go to your court, the courthouse, 
and be treated--you ought to get fair compensation for your economic 
damages. But we cannot have unlimited noneconomic damages and punitive 
damages drive health care away from the people. So I strongly support 
and I urge Congress to have reasonable Federal limits on noneconomic 
damages--$250,000 is reasonable. I think we ought to have a cap on 
punitive damages. I think we ought to have joint and several liability 
reform. And I know we ought to allow doctors and folks

[[Page 1363]]

who work in hospitals to be able to evaluate practice, to be able to 
analyze best practices on behalf of the patients without fear of a 
frivolous or junk lawsuit. It's time for Congress to act. It's time. 
This liability system of ours should serve patients, not trial lawyers.
    There's more we can do, and I look forward to working with Congress 
to make sure economic security is solid in America. You know, I believe 
that when you let a man or a woman keep more of his or her own money, it 
means he or she is going to demand a good or a service. And when they 
demand a good or a service, somebody is going to produce the good and 
service. And when somebody produces the good and service, somebody is 
likely to expand the job base. That's the school of economic thought I 
come from. And that's why I worked closely with then-Leader Lott and Speaker Hastert and 
people from both parties to pass a significant tax reduction on behalf 
of the American people. This tax reduction was well-timed. When you look 
at the fact that our economy was now--as we found out--in recession when 
I took office, it's well-timed. When people have more of their own 
money, it's how you fight a recession, and that was important.
    But interestingly enough, as a result of a quirk in the law of the 
Senate, these tax reforms, these tax reductions--not only income tax 
reductions but significantly reducing the marriage penalty and repealing 
the death tax--all those go away, all those reductions, after 10 years. 
For the sake of economic vitality, for the sake of allowing people to 
plan, for the sake of small businesses and farmers and ranchers all 
across the country, we need to make the tax reductions permanent.
    We need to make sure that construction projects go forward. After 
September the 11th, about $8 billion worth of construction projects were 
delayed or killed because people couldn't get lending, couldn't get 
commercial property financing for the lack of terrorism insurance. The 
Congress needs to act on this issue. For the sake of the hardhats here 
in America, for the good, hard-working people in Mississippi that are 
building bridges and commercial projects, for the people's sake--blue-
collar workers all across America--we need to get a terrorism insurance 
bill that will provide some surety so that these commercial projects can 
go forward, so that our construction workers will be back to work. It's 
time for the House and the Senate to reconcile its differences and, as 
you do so, make sure that you keep the workers in mind and not the 
lawyers.
    So I wanted to come to Mississippi to talk to you about our Nation's 
priorities. And I want to thank you for giving me a chance to come. I 
want to tell you how I feel about the country and its future. You're 
looking at an optimist. There is no problem we can't solve in this 
country. I believe out of the evil done to America is going to come some 
incredible good. I say that with certainty because the strength of the 
country is the American people. The American people have got great 
hearts, great resolve, great compassion, and great determination.
    This country is going to lead the world to peace. No, I know all the 
war rhetoric, but it's all aimed at achieving peace. That's my dream. I 
want there to be peace for generations of Americans. I want there to be 
peace for generations of Israelis and Palestinians, peace in South Asia. 
And by being strong and determined, by speaking clearly about good and 
evil, by being patient and resolved, I believe that we can help lead the 
world to peace.
    And here at home, we can lead, all of us can lead our country to a 
more compassionate future. There are pockets of despair in America. 
There are pockets of addiction and hopelessness. So long as one of us 
suffers, all of us suffers, as far as I'm concerned. And yet, I fully 
understand the limitations of Government. We can hand out money in 
Washington, DC, but we can't put hope in people's hearts or a sense of

[[Page 1364]]

purpose in people's lives. I wish I knew the law that would say, ``We 
will all love each other.'' Lott would sponsor it. I'd sign it. 
[Laughter] There is no Government law. There's a universal law. There's 
a higher law, and that's really the strength of America.
    People have heard that call. People say, ``What can I do to help 
after September the 11th?'' I've said, ``Love your neighbor.'' If you 
want to help, mentor a child. If you want to help, go see a shut-in and 
tell them you love them. If you want to help, feed the hungry. Build a 
house with Habitat. Run a Boy Scout troop or Girl Scout troop. If you 
want to help, just tell somebody, ``I care for you. I hope you--I hope 
if you've got a problem, you come and call on me.''
    You see, America can be saved one heart, one soul, one conscience at 
a time. One person can't do everything. I know that. The task seems 
large, but one person can do something. I'm asking you to be that one 
person doing something to help make your community and Mississippi and 
our Nation a place of hope, a place of decency, a place of compassion 
for every citizen who is fortunate enough to be an American.
    No, the enemy hit us. They hit us, but they didn't know who they 
were hitting. Oh, they probably thought we'd file a lawsuit or two. 
[Laughter] But they hit a nation that loves freedom, and we'll defend 
our freedoms. They also found out about our heart, that out of the evil 
done to America will come incredible good, because we're the greatest 
nation on the face of the Earth.
    Thank you for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 10:50 a.m. in the gymnasium. In his 
remarks, he referred to Representative Charles W. ``Chip'' Pickering of 
Mississippi; Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck of Mississippi; 
pediatricians Dr. Kurt Kooyer and his wife, Maria Weller; and 
neurosurgeon Dr. Rodney Frothingham. The Office of the Press Secretary 
also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.