[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[August 7, 2002]
[Pages 1364-1371]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Luncheon for Representative Charles W. Pickering in Jackson, Mississippi
August 7, 2002

    Thank you. Well, Chip, thank you very much. It's nice to be back 
here to Mississippi. I did bring Laura her coffee 
this morning. [Laughter] I don't want to put any pressure on 
Trent. [Laughter] But the good news is, it was in 
Crawford, Texas. [Laughter]
    I want to thank you for having me. I'm not going to stay for lunch; 
I'm going to head on home. I've changed addresses for a brief moment. I 
took my office from Washington to Crawford. I look forward to spending 
some time outside of our Nation's Capital. And I'm honored that the 
first place that I've come to since I've moved my office was the great 
State of Mississippi. It's wonderful to be back here again. Laura and I 
have got a lot of friends here, and we appreciate our friends.
    I want to thank you all for coming to help Chip. I'm here today 
because I want to make it as clear as I possibly can: You need to send 
Chip Pickering back to the United States House of Representatives. And I 
want to thank you all for helping. I want to thank you for contributing 
not only your money but your time. I know many of you are involved with 
grassroots politics, and that's good. That's how you win, is to 
invigorate the grassroots, like this

[[Page 1365]]

man is doing. So I want to thank you not only for what you have done, 
but what you're going to do--which is to man the phones and put up the 
signs and turn out the vote. I like to put it this way: When you find a 
good one, you've got to keep him. And you've got a good one in Chip 
Pickering.
    And he's got a fine family. I want to thank Leisha for her dedication to the Pickering family. I don't 
know where all the ones in the red shirts are, but they were at the last 
place I was. Those Pickering boys kept coming, one after another. 
[Laughter] But I love a man who loves his family, and Chip loves his 
family. I also want to thank Margaret Ann Pickering for being here, Chip's mom.
    And I want to say something as clearly as I can about why we need to 
control the United States Senate. I put a good man up, named Judge 
Pickering, for a higher court. And 
the people who control the Senate maligned this good man's character. 
They didn't treat him right. It's not good for America to have this kind 
of politics--take a good person and not treat him well, not give him the 
benefit of the doubt. We need to change the United States Senate so that 
we end this kind of politics on the judiciary and allow good people, 
good, honorable judges, to serve our Nation. The Senate did wrong by 
Judge Pickering. I did right by naming him to the bench.
    And he has no better friends in the Senate than Thad 
Cochran and Trent Lott, 
and I appreciate their leadership. I want to thank Thad and Trent for 
their friendship. When it comes to Mississippi, those men are pretty 
good about making the Mississippi case; you just need to know that. 
[Laughter]
    One of my favorite things to do--I'm an early morning guy; I get to 
the White House early. And I love to take Barney out on the South Lawn. 
He's a Scottish terrier. The Lotts, Tricia and 
Trent, they love Scottish terriers. And I bring 
Spot there to the Oval Office. Spot was born at the White House, so 
she's quite used to being in the Oval Office and respects the new rug. 
[Laughter] And I get there early in the morning. One of my favorite 
things to do is to call up Trent--he's not an early morning guy--
[laughter]--and share with him my Barney stories. [Laughter] But you're 
well represented by these two fine men. They're doing a great job for 
Mississippi, and they're doing a great job for America too.
    And it's great to see Tricia, great to see 
Tricia. Laura and Tricia are fast friends, and I 
look forward to telling Laura today when I get back home that I got to 
see her buddy Tricia, Tricia Lott.
    I also want to thank Congressman Roger Wicker. He, too, has done a fine job. He and Chip make a pretty 
darn good pair for the people of Mississippi. I want to thank Clinton 
LeSueur for running for the United States 
Congress. Where are you, Clinton? Go get them; I wish you all the best.
    I appreciate so very much my friend G.V. ``Sonny'' 
Montgomery for being here, Sonny 
Montgomery. Sonny is a long-time friend of my family's. We're really 
proud to call him friend. He was a fabulous Congressman for the State of 
Mississippi. When I'm in town there in Washington, I go to church right 
across the street. Sonny always reserves me a spot in the pew there. But 
I forgot to say in the earlier rally, he also puts a couple of dollars 
in the plate on my behalf. [Laughter] I'm running up quite a debt to 
Sonny. [Laughter] Keep giving, Sonny, and one of these days I'm going to 
pay you back. [Laughter] Oh, we're even now? Okay, good. [Laughter] But 
anyway, it's great to see Sonny.
    It's great to see Haley Barbour here, the 
former RNC Chairman, a man who loves Mississippi and has never left. I 
want to thank Phil Bryant, who is the 
Mississippi State auditor. Phil, thank you for being here; appreciate 
you being here, sir. And Dick Hall, the 
Mississippi transportation commissioner, is here with us as well.

[[Page 1366]]

Thank you, Dick. I want to thank Jim Herring, 
who is the chairman of the mighty Republican Party of Mississippi. And 
Cindy Phillips, national committeewoman, I 
want to thank her for coming too. Thank you, Cindy; good to see you.
    I appreciate so very much you all coming to help Chip. It's 
important Denny Hastert remain the Speaker 
of the House. Equally important, it's important that you're represented 
by this good man. He is what we call an up-and-comer. He's a star today; 
he's going to be a bigger star tomorrow, because he's a man of 
principle. See, he doesn't get up there and kind of try to wag his 
finger to figure out which way the wind is blowing. He stands on 
principle, and he stands strong on those principles. He believes in 
faith and family and Mississippi, in that order.
    Before September the 11th, he was for a strong military, just like a 
lot of folks in Mississippi believe in a strong military. That was good, 
because after September the 11th, we needed a strong military. He's 
going to work with me to make sure that our military budgets are sound.
    He's a fellow who believes in educating every child--every child. We 
passed a good piece of legislation. Interestingly enough, it's called 
the No Child Left Behind legislation. I mean that, by the way, and so 
does Chip--no child left behind. The principles behind that bill are 
pretty simple and easy to understand. First, you've got to set high 
standards. See, if you believe certain children can't learn, certain 
children won't learn. So you've got to insist upon high standards. 
There's a Federal role for insisting upon high standards because we 
spend a lot of money helping people, helping States. So we expect the 
best. We believe every child can learn.
    And if you believe every child can learn, then you ought to insist 
that we measure to see whether every child is learning. If you believe 
every child can learn, therefore we ought to know whether that's the 
case. If you believe certain children can't learn, then don't bother to 
measure. But if you believe every child can learn, and if you're taking 
Federal money, the bill we passed says show us--it's not a Federal 
Government test--you in Mississippi show us whether or not children are 
learning to read and write and add and subtract.
    And if they are, they'll be praise for the teachers. See, we believe 
in local control of schools. There will be praise for those who have 
insisted upon excellence for every child. But if you can't show us, then 
you need to change. The reason why we insist upon accountability is not 
to punish but to save lives. It is not to say, ``These people are bad.'' 
It's to say, ``What you're doing isn't working.'' We insist that every 
child in America learn, and nobody should be left behind.
    I appreciate Chip's support and vision about economic security. 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 
small businesses can grow to be big businesses, in which people feel 
confident about expanding the job base, so people can find work. The 
foundations for economic growth are strong in America. Inflation is low. 
Monetary policy is good. Productivity is up. There is growth in our 
economy. But so long as somebody who wants to find work can't find work, 
I think we have a problem and need to continue to work on policies that 
will encourage economic growth. And Chip understands that.
    You know, when I came into office, we were beginning a recession. I 
remember the Vice President saying that clearly. 
And immediately the world in Washington start wagging their finger at 
him, and it turns out he was right. The numbers, the statistics have 
shown that for the first three quarters of my Presidency, we were in 
recession. It was during that period that I argued for a tax cut for the 
American people. See, in times of recession, it's important to let 
people keep their own money. And when they keep their own money,

[[Page 1367]]

they're going to demand some good or service. And by demanding a good or 
a service, somebody will produce the good and service, which means jobs. 
That's what that means.
    I want to appreciate Chip's support of the tax relief plan. Those 
tax cuts were well-timed. And by the way, inherent in the tax relief is 
not just a reduction of rates on income taxes; it's a small-business 
vitality program, because most small businesses are sole proprietors, or 
most small businesses are limited partnerships, and they pay taxes at 
the individual rate. And thereby, dropping individual rates, you've 
stimulated small-business growth.
    We've also slashed the marriage penalty and have done a--gone a long 
way toward repealing the death tax, which is punitive on Mississippi 
farmers and ranchers and small-business owners. I say ``gone a long 
way'' because, because of a quirk in the Senate law, after 10 years 
those tax relief packages revert back to where they were. And so one way 
to continue to set the foundation for economic growth is to have 
certainty in the Tax Code. Therefore, it's important for Mississippi to 
send somebody to Washington who understands that, who is willing to join 
me in making sure the tax relief package we passed in the midst of a 
recession are permanent. I call upon Congress to make the tax cuts 
permanent so the American people can plan and grow.
    I understand full well what has happened here in Mississippi and in 
other communities when they have been deceived by corporate wrongdoing. 
Today I met with two ladies who worked for WorldCom here in Mississippi. 
They had their savings invested in the company. They no longer work for 
the company. They're disillusioned, and they should be. They should be 
disillusioned. Anybody--anytime anybody abuses their positions of 
authority by hedging numbers, that's not right--by not being open and 
honest, particularly when a shareholder or employee is relying upon you. 
Chip understands that. The Congress understood that. They passed good 
laws. And this administration is going to investigate, we will arrest, 
and we will prosecute those who betray the trust of the American people 
and their shareholders and employees of American companies.
    Today I came to Mississippi to talk about liability reform. I'm 
worried about what the frivolous lawsuits have done to the health care 
systems across America. There is a Federal responsibility when it comes 
to health care. After all, we write checks for Medicare. Chip talked 
about prescription drugs for Medicare. We need a prescription drug 
program for the seniors. We need a modern Medicare system. But we also 
spend a lot of money. And these frivolous lawsuits run up the cost of 
Medicare, and they run up the cost of Medicaid, and they run up the cost 
of veterans programs. It's a Federal responsibility. And so for the sake 
of controlling health care costs, we need medical liability reform at 
the Federal level.
    I worry about health care systems, not only where the costs are high 
but where people have trouble finding health care they need. We heard 
from stories today about ob-gy--or pediatricians in the Delta. One 
fellow came, named Kooyer, Dr. Kooyer. He came 
down to Mississippi because, as he said, his Christian calling asked him 
to come down, told him to come down to help people in need. There's a 
pediatrician in some of the poorest counties in America wanting to 
provide health care for people in need, and he's leaving your State 
because the lawsuits are driving him out of the State. You need to do 
something about it here in Mississippi, and we need to do something 
about it in Washington, DC. And Chip Pickering understands that.
    No, I appreciate Chip. I appreciate his attitude. I hope Mississippi 
rejects the politics of putting people in one class or another and 
pitting them against each other. That's not how you get ahead in a 
society. We've got too much of that in Washington.

[[Page 1368]]

And one of the reasons, one of the objectives I've got is to get rid of 
that kind of politics, of saying, you know, ``If you're in this group or 
that group, you're either no good, or we're going to make you fight in 
order to get ahead.'' That is not good for the country. Chip is a 
unifier; he's not a divider. He sets the right tone, as far as I'm 
concerned. And that's the kind of tone that will make you proud when you 
send him back to Washington, DC.
    I look forward to working with Congress when we get back, 
particularly the Senate, to make sure this Department of Homeland 
Security that I proposed is set up right. I say that because our number 
one priority now is to make sure that the enemy doesn't hit us again. 
And they're out there, by the way. These are people that hate America 
because we love freedom. They hate what we stand for. They hate the fact 
that we worship freely, that all religions are welcome here in America. 
They hate that. They hate the fact that we speak our mind. They hate the 
fact that we have good political discourse. They hate everything we 
stand for, and so therefore, they're going to keep coming.
    And my job and the job of the Congress is to work together to do 
everything we can to protect our homeland. It's to make sure that we do 
everything we can to get our agencies cooperating, make sure that the 
agencies involved with homeland security, of which there's over 100, 
have as their number one priority the protection of the American people. 
And so I said, ``Why don't we put them all under a single Department of 
Homeland Security?'' Look, I recognize I wasn't the guy that ran for 
office and said, ``Vote for me. I'm for bigger Government.'' I did say I 
want to make Government work better. And I think this will make 
Government work better.
    And the House of Representatives passed a good piece of legislation 
which will allow our administration, or the next administration or the 
next administration after that, to put the right people in the right 
place at the right time in order to protect the homeland. And I will not 
accept a bill that hamstrings the capacity of an administration to do 
that. And the Senate just needs to know--and I appreciate Senator 
Lott and Senator Cochran's support on this issue--that we will continue to argue 
for what's best for the American people, not what's best for either 
political turf or special interest groups in Washington, DC. The 
protection of the people is more important than setting up so many 
bureaucratic rules that we won't be able to protect the people. And so I 
look forward to getting a good bill out of the Senate and a bill on my 
desk.
    In the meantime, I hope you realize that there are a lot of people 
working hard to protect our homeland. We're doing a better job of 
sharing information. We're running down every lead, every hint. Every 
time we find out that somebody might be thinking about doing something 
to America, we're reacting. And there's a lot of good people reacting on 
our behalf. And I want to thank you for that, and I want to assure you 
that we take every possible hint seriously. We do.
    I also want to tell you that I know the best way to protect the 
homeland is to find the killers and bring them to justice. We must hunt 
them down one by one to secure America, and we will. It's a different 
kind of war. I know you know that. The American people have come to 
understand that, that the first war of the 21st century is different 
from the previous wars. In the past, we would follow infantries and 
formations of aircraft and fleets of ships across oceans. We would know 
where they were, and we'd watch whether or not battlefields were taken 
or not. Now we're fighting individuals who hide in caves and send 
youngsters to their death. We're fighting people that move money around 
surreptitiously and attack by means of terror. That's who we're 
fighting. But it's still a war. We fight for freedom. Just like the 
previous wars

[[Page 1369]]

we fought for freedom, we fight for freedom now, which means that we 
have to think differently about how we fight the war.
    The first stage of any war is to make certain doctrines clear. One 
doctrine we made clear and we're continuing to make clear is, no matter 
what the cost, we defend freedom in America. That's why I submitted a 
significant budget--a defense budget, the biggest since Ronald Reagan, 
because I understand the price of freedom is high. But it's not too 
high, as far as I'm concerned. Anytime we put our uniformed folks into 
harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best training, and the best 
possible equipment. It also is a signal, by the way--the size of the 
defense bill is a signal that says, we're in this for the long run. I 
like to remind people, there's not a calendar on my desk. Senator 
Lott will tell you, or Senator Cochran, who's been in the office, there's not a calendar in the 
Oval Office that says, oh, by such-and-such a date we're through, that 
we'll all go home. That's not the way it is when it comes to defending 
freedom and winning the first war of the 21st century. We're relentless, 
and we're determined.
    And so the first doctrine is, no matter what the cost to defend our 
freedoms, we'll pay it. The second doctrine is, if you harbor a 
terrorist, or if you feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the 
terrorists.
    And the Taliban learned now what we meant. The Taliban found out 
what we meant. And I want you all to remind your youngsters who are 
here, or remind your youngsters if they're not here, that their 
Government sent our military into Afghanistan not to conquer a people 
but to free a people, to free people from the clutches of a barbaric 
regime which would not even educate young girls. And so for the first 
time in Afghanistan, many young girls get to go to school, thanks to the 
United States and our coalition.
    The other doctrine is, is that either you're with us and those of us 
who love freedom, or you're with the enemy. And that doctrine still 
holds too. We've put together a vast coalition of people that understand 
the stakes, and the coalition still is strong. I mean, we're trying to 
disrupt money. We're sharing intelligence. We've hauled in over 2,000 
people--2,000 of these killers. Another 2,000 or more haven't been as 
lucky.
    The other day, the Government of Gloria Arroyo in the Philippines went after the Abu Sayyaf* group. 
It looks like the head of that group met his demise. That's the group, 
by the way, that had captured American missionaries; the husband of a 
wonderful lady named Gracia Burnham was 
killed. Either you're with us, or you're with the enemy. The Philippines 
and other countries around the world are denying sanctuary to these 
killers. We've got them on the run. We're going to keep them on the run.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    *White House correction.
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    As well, ``Either you're with us, or you're with the enemy'' also 
applies to nations which harbor weapons of mass destruction; nations 
which have got abysmal human rights record at home, at their own homes; 
nations which have not been able to live at peace with their neighbors; 
nations which would use those weapons of mass destruction to either 
destroy and/or blackmail the United States and our friends and allies.
    I'm a patient person. I've got a--we've got a lot of tools at our 
disposal. I believe in consultation with Congress. I believe in 
consultation with our friends and allies. But those who have talked to 
me know that history has called us to this moment. For the sake of our 
children and our grandchildren, we can't let the world's worst leaders 
blackmail and threaten the United States with the world's worst weapons.

[At this point, there was a gap in the audio feed.]

----is going to come some good. I love to speculate about what was going 
through

[[Page 1370]]

the enemy's mind. What were they thinking when they hit America? They 
must have thought that we were so materialistic or self-absorbed or 
shallow or so worried about our own prosperity, our own individual 
wealth, that we were unwilling to serve something greater than ourself 
in life; that when the enemy hit, we would just kind of make noise and 
do nothing about it. They didn't understand the character of the 
American people. I do. That's why I can predict with confidence that out 
of the evil done to America will come some good.
    I know this Nation. I know our heart. I know our determination. I 
know our resolve. I firmly believe that by remaining strong in the face 
of terror and by remaining committed to the human values that we hold 
dear, that we can achieve peace in parts of the world that may have 
given up on peace. I believe we can lead others to realize that peace is 
possible and peace can happen and peace will happen in the Middle East 
or in South Asia. And I believe we can achieve the peace we dream for, 
for our children and our children's children.
    I also know at home that out of the evil done to America can come 
some incredible good, because I've seen the spirit of America. I saw it 
when I saw the coal miners that were rescued in Pennsylvania. I see it 
firsthand everywhere I go. I saw it today with a child who came out--18-year-old girl who came out to the 
airport to greet me, who upon her own initiative signed up her 
classmates to mentor children in need and fed the homeless, fed the 
hungry. I saw her in action. I saw her love, and I saw her compassion. 
It didn't require an act of Government to get her to love a neighbor 
like she'd like to be loved herself. She felt the spirit, and she felt 
the call.
    And that's happening all across America. That's what this Nation is 
made out of. There are thousands of people all across this country who 
reach out to a child and say, ``What can I do to make sure you 
understand that America is meant for you?'' You see, our society can 
change and will change, one heart, one soul, one person at a time. And 
people say, ``Well, I can't do everything.'' But you can do something. 
You can do something to make the community in which you live a better 
place.
    And that's why I'm such a believer in the Faith-Based Initiative. 
Government shouldn't discriminate against faith. Government should 
welcome faith, the power of faith, whether it comes through the 
Christian church, through Judaism, or through Islam, can change people's 
lives for the better. And we must welcome that faith in our society.
    I started running for office in Texas because I was hopeful to be a 
part of a cultural change in America, a change from a culture which had 
said, ``If it feels good, just go ahead and do it,'' and ``If you've got 
a problem, blame somebody else.'' I believe the culture is shifting in 
America. People are beginning to understand that serving something other 
than yourself is an important part of being an American.
    And perhaps the most vivid example of that came on Flight 93. 
Average citizens were flying across the country that fateful day. They 
heard their airplane was going to be used as a weapon, perhaps against 
the Capitol or against the White House, certainly against innocent 
Americans. They said a prayer. They told their loved ones goodbye. One 
guy said, ``Let's roll,'' and they drove the plane in the ground. It is 
a signal, a symbol of what it means to be an American, of serving 
something greater than yourself in life. No, out of the evil done to 
America is going to come some incredible good, because we're the 
greatest nation, full of the finest people, on the face of the Earth.
    Thank you all for coming. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 12:35 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at the 
Hilton Jackson and Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to 
Representative Pickering's wife,

[[Page 1371]]

Leisha, and his father, Charles W. Pickering, Sr.; Senator Trent Lott 
and his wife, Tricia; Clinton B. LeSueur, candidate for Mississippi's 
Second Congressional District; pediatrician Dr. Kurt Kooyer; and Star 
Wallin, founder, Project CARE. The transcript released by the Office of 
the Press Secretary did not include the complete remarks of the 
President due to a gap in the audio feed from the event. Representative 
Pickering was a candidate for reelection in Mississippi's Third 
Congressional District.