[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[August 14, 2002]
[Pages 1391-1398]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
August 14, 2002

     Well, thank you all very much for that warm welcome. It's great to 
be back here in Wisconsin, the land of reform, a State which has 
challenged other States to achieve excellence for every citizen. I 
appreciate the Governor's introduction. I 
appreciate his friendship. I so very much appreciate you all coming 
today to give me a chance to share with you some of the challenges our 
Nation faces and why I'm optimistic that we can achieve and defeat those 
challenges.
    There's no better place to come--a State to talk about a can-do 
spirit than Wisconsin. There's no better place to come and explain to my 
fellow citizens how deeply committed I am and our country is to winning 
the war on terror. This is a good place to come to explain to our fellow 
citizens that we will do whatever it takes to protect the homeland and 
that we will do whatever it takes to make sure our economy remains 
strong and vibrant, all throughout the United States of America.
    I want to thank Nancy, the chancellor 
of this fine university, for hosting me and the small entourage the 
President travels with. [Laughter] I appreciate very much, Nancy, your 
staff working hard to set up this room for this discussion. Thank 
everybody on our behalf, please. I also appreciate your commitment to 
education. I love the idea of a school in which people come to get 
educated and stay in the State in which they're educated. It is a 
positive sign that this university is fulfilling its important function, 
which is to train Wisconsin youngsters for the future and then have the 
Wisconsin youngsters stay here to make sure that future is bright for 
all citizens. I congratulate you for your leadership. I appreciate so 
very much your focus on no child being left behind.
    I appreciate so very much the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of 
Commerce for hosting this event. I want to thank the local officials who 
have come--State officials and local officials. I particularly want to 
pay homage to Scott Walker.
    Yesterday I spent some quality time with the latest inductee into 
the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum's Hall of Fame. That would be your Tommy 
Thompson. You need to know he's doing a 
fantastic job. He's got a tough job, and he's doing a great job on 
behalf of citizens all across our country.
    Finally, I had the honor of welcoming a soldier in the army of 
compassion today

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at Air Force One. Her name is Lucille Woods. 
Lucille, would you mind standing up, please? I want you to meet Lucille 
because she's an example of what needs to happen in America if you're 
interested in our society being a compassionate society. See, Government 
can hand out money, but what Government cannot do is put love into 
people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. If you're 
interested in having an America that is a decent and compassionate 
place, you've got to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved 
yourself. That is what Lucille Woods does. She is a foster grandparent--
she is a foster grandparent who works with second graders to make sure 
that they learn to read. No child will be left behind in her vision of 
America. Lucille volunteers her time in her church to help those in 
need. Our society is going to change, one heart, one soul at a time, 
because of silent heroes like Lucille Woods. And thank you for coming 
today, Lucille.
    Now, I was mentioning, we have some serious challenges facing our 
Nation. And my most important job, I think, is to make sure that I 
protect--do everything I can to protect the homeland and make sure that 
an enemy which hates freedom doesn't hit us again. They're out there. 
They can't stand the thought of America being a hospitable society to 
many cultures. They can't stand the thought of a society which worships 
an almighty God in different ways, a society which is tolerant to 
different approaches to religion. They really hate the thought of us 
being a society in which we are able to speak our mind, a society which 
values the individual worth of each person. And so, so long as we uphold 
those values, which we will do, they're going to try to strike us.
    But you need to know, your Government at the Federal level and 
governments at the State and local level are doing everything we can to 
protect the American people. There's a lot of really fine people who are 
running down every hint and every lead and every opportunity to disrupt 
what may or may not be fixing to happen.
    When we get back to Washington after what they call the August 
break, I look forward to working with the United States Congress to do 
everything we can to effect an organizational change which would then 
allow me to say more certainly to the American people, we're effective 
at protecting the homeland.
    There was--there is over 100 agencies involved with homeland 
defense. These agencies do different things other than homeland defense, 
but part of their function is to protect the homeland. The Coast Guard 
is a good example. The Coast Guard protects our shores from smugglers, 
and they, you know, they're watching out for the fishermen; they rescue 
boats in distress. But they also have got a function of protecting the 
homeland. And so the fundamental question, when you think about the fact 
there's 100 agencies scattered around, is, what can we best do to align 
authority and responsibility? How best can we have the primary function 
of these 100 agencies be to protect the homeland? In other words, how do 
we change priority and culture? My suggestion was, is that we create a 
single Department, the responsibility of which is to protect the 
American people, with a Cabinet officer confirmed by the Congress. And 
we're making progress on this idea. By the way, this isn't a Republican 
idea, and this isn't a Democrat idea. This an American idea to protect 
the American people. And so we're making progress.
    We're making progress, but the Senate now needs to take up the idea. 
And the concern is, is that they will be more concerned about their own 
political turf and jurisdictional turf than they will be the larger 
concept of protecting the American people. They'll be more concerned 
about special interests and less concerned about how to adequately 
protect America. So I look forward to working with the Senate. But I can 
assure you, I will insist that the new Department be able to put the 
right person

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in the right place at the right time to be able to protect the American 
people, that we will reject any plan which has got a thick book of 
bureaucratic rules all aimed at protecting special interests.
    And it's important that we be able to have the right person at the 
right place at the right time. It's important to be able to do so to 
protect our borders. We need to know who's coming in and what they're 
bringing into America and whether or not they're leaving when they're 
supposed to be leaving America. And that means that the INS and the 
Border Patrol and the Customs all ought to be working in concert, under 
the same authority, developing the same culture. And that's going to 
require flexibility to get everybody thinking the same way. There's a 
lot of entrenched interests in Washington. And we're going to need all 
the tools necessary to make sure those entrenched interests hit in the 
right--run in the same direction, and that is to fulfill the top 
priority of our Government, which is to protect our homeland.
    But the best way to protect the homeland, the best way to secure 
freedom for this country is to chase the killers down, one person at a 
time, and bring them to justice, which is what the United States is 
going to do. I say that because I want the world to be at peace, but I 
know the nature of the enemy. They--we can't talk them out of their 
ideas. We can't hold their hands and hope they change their attitude. We 
must bring them to justice. This country doesn't seek revenge. We seek 
justice. And the farther we get away from the attacks of America, the 
more likely it is some Americans will forget the danger--but not me, nor 
will the United States military.
    For those of you who have got loved ones in the U.S. military, I 
want to tell you how proud I am, how confident I am of their abilities, 
and how proud you should be of their service to our great country.
    I have submitted a significant increase in defense appropriations 
for two reasons: Anytime we put our military in harm's way, they deserve 
the best training, the best pay, the best possible equipment; and 
secondly, I want to send a message to our friends and our enemies that 
the United States of America is determined and patient and relentless in 
our quest for freedom. Now, the Congress has passed--the House passed 
one version. The Senate passed another version. They need to get 
together quickly, when they get back in September, and get a defense 
appropriations bill on my desk first thing. It's important for our 
planning purposes; it's important for our war on terror that they not 
play politics with the defense appropriations bills.
    And we're making some progress. We really are. What's hard for some 
to understand about this new war of the 21st century is that these are 
people being treated like international criminals, and so it's like 
we're on a manhunt. And the United States is working closely with our 
friends, and we have hauled in over a couple of thousand of these folks. 
They've been arrested and detained. Some of them are in our possession. 
Others are with other countries. Some of the terrorists haven't been 
quite as luckily as those who have been detained and arrested. But we're 
slowly but surely making progress, and we're enforcing the doctrine that 
says, ``Either you're with us, or you're with the enemy, and if you 
harbor a terrorist, if you feed one, you're just as guilty as those who 
killed thousands of Americans on September the 11th.''
    I believe by being relentless and steady, not only will we make 
America more free, that the future generations of American citizens will 
be able to grow up in a free society, but by being relentless and steady 
and principled and determined, we can achieve peace. And that's my hope, 
is for the world to be peaceful; that we can achieve peace in parts of 
the world that have--where some folks have just given up on the thought 
of peace, perhaps the Middle East or South Asia. For those of you with 
youngsters who are trying to explain what you're seeing or hearing on TV 
about

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this war on terror, please tell them that when we go into a country, we 
go in not as conquerors but as liberators, because we believe in freedom 
for all citizens who live in the world. We love our own freedoms, and at 
the same time, by being strong and resolved and determined, we can 
achieve peace--peace for generations to come.
    And the third big challenge is to enhance and to work on the 
economic security of the American people. We'll work on the homeland 
security and the economic security. Yesterday I had a forum in Baylor 
University, in central Texas--quite a sacrifice for people to come down 
there, to central Texas, middle of Texas in the middle of August. But 
they were determined to share with me and people in my administration 
ideas and thoughts and concerns. I could have had the meeting right here 
and had the same input from citizens here in the great city of 
Milwaukee. We had union members and union leaders. We had grandmothers. 
We had entrepreneurs, small-business people, farmers, ranchers, people 
from all walks of life. And they talked about the challenges our economy 
faces. I mean, after all, for the first three quarters when I was the 
President, we were in recession. And then that September the 11th hit, 
and that hurt our economy. And then some of these liars showed up. Some 
of the scandals started to surface. They'd been in the making for a 
while, but they began to bubble up, and that shook the confidence of our 
country. And we discussed--we discussed that yesterday.
    But we all came--at least, I came to the conclusion, having listened 
to a lot of our fellow Americans, that the strength of the American 
people and the fundamental strength of our economy far outweighs the 
challenges we face. And let me give you some examples. We're the most 
productive people in the world. Our farmers and ranchers and working 
people are incredibly productive. Interest rates are low. Inflation is 
low. Wages are rising. Taxes are lower. Consumer spending is still 
strong. I came away from the meeting confident about our economic 
future, but not content with the progress we're making. And I want to 
discuss with you some of the things I think we can do.
    First, you've got to understand that behind the statistics--at least 
the way I view it is, behind the statistics is somebody's life. So the 
way I put it is, if somebody wants a job and can't find a job, we've got 
a problem. So long as anybody is looking for work who can't find work, 
we need to do something about it.
    Now, there are some things we can do in Washington to help the 
economy grow. One thing we need to do is to restrain excessive spending. 
We need fiscal responsibility. Excessive spending will serve as a drag 
on economic growth. Right now, we've got some deficits because of the 
recession and because we're funding the war on terror. But by 
restraining excessive spending, we can have our budget back in balance. 
But it's going to require Congress to show some discipline. And that's 
hard. Every constituency has got an issue. Every program sounds 
wonderful.
    I tried to help yesterday. Congress sent an emergency spending bill 
to my desk, and that was good. It's called a supplemental. It's money 
for the war on terror; it's money to defend the homeland; it's money to 
help rebuild New York City. But interestingly enough, they put 5 billion 
additional dollars in there, about $5 billion that I didn't think was an 
emergency. And part of the language in the supplemental said, ``Either 
you spend all 5 billion of the extra money, or you spend none of it.'' 
In other words, I didn't have any flexibility. I didn't get to pick and 
choose. They said ``all or none.'' I heard their position. Yesterday 
they heard mine: We're spending none of the 5 billion.
    This decision should serve as an example that I am serious when it 
comes to protecting taxpayers' money and to being fiscally sound with 
your money, to set priorities and make sure they fund the priorities

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but don't overspend. Somebody said, ``What are you talking about?'' In 
part of the 5 billion, to show you one of the egregious examples, was, 
they wanted a new building for worms and bugs that the United States had 
collected. That's not an emergency. [Laughter] If somebody thinks it's 
that important, they can put it in next year's appropriations bill. As a 
matter of fact, one of the things we'll do is, we'll take some of the 
good ideas that were a part of the 5 billion and work immediately to get 
them in the '03 budgets. And by the way, the '03 funding starts soon.
    Two examples: One, a pressing need--one of the pressing needs was 
AIDS prevention programs. I'm a supporter of doing everything we can 
here at home and internationally for fighting AIDS. And there's money in 
there for the Middle East, for Israel and Palestine, and that money is 
necessary. But there's time to get it in the '03 budget, and we'll get 
it spent. But I am not--I am not going to allow Congress to pressure me 
to spend money that I don't think is needed. For the good of the 
economy, we must show fiscal restraint.
    And for the good of the economy, we fortunately reduced the taxes on 
the people who pay taxes here in America. Tax relief was timely, and 
it's going to--history will show it was necessary to help fight this 
recession that we inherited.
    One of the things I heard yesterday, and I suspect you would hear 
from the small-business owners in this crowd, is that by reducing taxes, 
it helps small businesses grow. Seventy percent of the new jobs in 
America are created by our small-business entrepreneurs. Small business 
is the backbone of an economic recovery. And therefore, by cutting 
taxes, we helped small businesses. I've heard the rhetoric about who 
supposedly we're helping or not helping. The reality is, most small 
businesses pay personal income taxes. Most small businesses are not 
incorporated. They're sole proprietorships. They're limited 
partnerships. They pay personal income taxes. And when you drop the 
personal tax rate, you're helping small businesses. The more money a 
small business has, the more likely it is that small business is going 
to be able to grow and employ another citizen from Wisconsin.
    We slashed the marriage penalty. I believe the Tax Code ought to 
encourage marriage, not discourage marriage.
    And we put the death tax on the road to extinction. We heard 
yesterday from people from all walks of life talk about how terrible the 
death tax is. These are small-business owners, many of whom have just 
come to America for the first time. They're building up their asset 
base. They want to be able to leave their assets to whoever they want to 
leave them to, without that asset getting taxed twice. The death tax is 
bad for Wisconsin farmers. The death tax is bad for Wisconsin's small-
business owners. The death tax needs to go, forever, as far as I'm 
concerned. But because of a quirk in the Senate rules, the tax relief 
plan that is being phased in will end in 10 years, or 9 years from now. 
And that's not right. People need to be able to plan. People need not 
be--have certainty in the Tax Code. And so therefore, for the good of 
economic growth, for the good of job creation, the United States 
Congress must make the tax relief plan that we passed permanent.
    Congress needs to act on terrorism insurance. People say, ``What is 
that?'' Well, there are eight--there's $8 billion worth of money that 
has been put aside--$8 billion worth of construction projects that are 
not going forward in America because of the high cost of terrorism 
insurance. When the enemy hit us, they changed the whole concept of 
risk. Our belief is, the Federal Government ought to help pay for 
terrorism insurance. I think it's a useful use of taxpayers' money to 
provide a certainty, a security for terrorism insurance. If you're 
worried about jobs like I am, if you want your hardhats working, we've 
got to get terrorism insurance passed so these large

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commercial projects go forward. We want people working in America, and 
the United States Congress can provide a means necessary to get these 
construction workers back to work.
    We need an energy plan in America. We need to conserve more energy. 
We need to work on renewables. We need to explore more at home in an 
environmentally friendly way, so we're not reliant upon foreign sources 
of crude oil.
    I got trade authority. I'm going to use trade authority for the good 
of the economy. I made the argument to Congress that good trade means 
good jobs. Listen, if you're good at something, you want to encourage. 
If you're good at something, you want to open up markets for the product 
you create. Listen, we've got the best entrepreneurs in the world here 
in America. We've got the best farmers in the world here. We've got the 
best cheese in the world here in America. And we ought to be selling our 
products all around the world. It's important for our fellow Americans 
to understand, trade means higher paying jobs.
    I also look forward to working with Congress on pension reforms. A 
lot of people own stock and bonds, and that's positive. We want people 
to own things in America. We want people to say--balance sheet to be 
more than just potential income; we want it to be assets. And yet there 
are those who are involved in pension funds that are locked into funds. 
They can't diversify. There needs to be a law on the books that says 
that after you own your company's stock for a while, you ought to be 
able to sell it and diversify your portfolio. You ought to not have all 
your eggs in one basket. And I'm proud of the law I just signed which 
says, if the CEO gets to sell his stock, so does the working person, the 
person working for that CEO.
    And speaking about CEOs, like you, I have been disappointed in the 
performance of some of America's chief executive officers. They let us 
down. They didn't uphold their responsibility as a leader should. They 
fudged the books. They didn't tell the truth. And now they're going to 
pay the price. It's no longer easy money for these folks; it's hard 
time. I want to thank the members of both political parties for signing 
the most comprehensive corporate reform since Franklin Roosevelt was the 
President. I appreciated working with leaders in both parties to get 
this done. We're going to send a very strong signal to people. We expect 
there to be transparency. We're going to make sure that the numbers are 
real. We've got a lot of first-time stockholders who don't appreciate 
being told one thing is happening, but reality was another. The SEC is 
stronger. We've got more enforcement officers. We've got laws on the 
books now that are going to increase the penalties for lying and 
cheating to the American people. I've got a Corporate Fraud Task Force 
that's active and aggressive. Obviously, they'll stick to the law, but 
when we find somebody who has defrauded the American people, they're 
going to pay a price.
    You know, I was telling some folks yesterday, I was disappointed to 
hear that in business schools, they're afraid to teach right from wrong. 
They don't want to take the position of right from wrong for future 
MBAs. And in my speech I gave to New York City about the reforms 
necessary to help clean up corporate America, I talked about the need 
for business schools to teach right from wrong. And professors came up 
to me when I was on my way out of the room--he said, ``Thanks for saying 
that.'' Big old fellow, a working man, came up and said, ``If you really 
want to teach them right from wrong, Mr. President, if you want to send 
a message about ethics and business in America, slap some handcuffs on 
one or two of them and put them on TV; that's the best lesson you can 
leave with corporate America if they're going to lie, cheat, or steal.''
    Today chief executive officers of major corporate America are 
putting their names

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on the line to certify that the numbers on their balance sheets are 
real. And that's positive. By far the vast majority of those who run 
corporate America are good, honorable people. You've got some great 
companies here in the State of Wisconsin. I think of Harley Davidson, 
for example, a company which has got not only a great product but a 
company which treats its employees with the utmost of respect and 
dignity and has done pretty well by the shareholder as well. We've got 
all kinds of companies like that, run by decent people, and we're not 
going to let the few ruin the reputations of the many. We're going to 
hold people to account here in America.
    One of the things I learned at our sessions yesterday and I suspect 
would learn here today, that even though folks are optimistic about the 
future, there has been--a little shaken in their confidence. People are 
concerned, and I can understand that. But one of the things that rang 
true yesterday to me, and does every time I make a stop here in America, 
is that we should never lack confidence in our character, in the 
character of the American people. This is a fabulous country. These are 
hard-working, decent, honorable people who can overcome any challenge. 
This is a great country, and when we put our mind to something, we'll be 
successful.
    And we've got our mind on some big goals here in America. We've got 
our mind on bringing freedom and peace to the world. Our mind is on 
protecting the homeland, and our thoughts and concerns are with those 
who are struggling economically. But we'll achieve economic security 
here in America. Our entrepreneurial spirit is strong. The fundamentals 
are great. We're regaining confidence in the leadership of corporate 
America. But most of all, the American people are determined to succeed.
    You know, I have said to our citizens a lot of times that out of the 
evil done to America on September the 11th is going to come incredible 
good. Out of the evil done to our Nation is going to come some good, the 
likes of which we never really would have dreamed. And part of the good 
that's going to come is the fact that our culture is changing, that a 
lot of Americans understand that it's patriotic to help a neighbor in 
need. People say, ``What can you do to fight the war on terror?'' You 
know what you can do? You can do some good. It's the collective acts of 
goodness and decency which define America, which show the world the true 
face of our nobility and our strength and our culture.
    Flight 93 was a poignant moment for me and, I suspect, for you as 
well. These are people flying across the country. They heard the plane 
was going to be used as a weapon. They were on their cell phones to 
their loved ones. They told them they loved them. They said a prayer. 
One guy said, ``Let's roll.'' They took the plane in the ground to serve 
something greater than themselves in life.
    It's those acts of courage, those quiet acts of compassion which 
really are changing America, one person at a time. There is a new 
culture in this country. We're ushering in a period of personal 
responsibility. People are responsible for the decisions they make in 
life, responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all 
your soul, responsible for helping a neighbor in need, responsible for 
making sure the Milwaukee school system is the best in the country so 
nobody--no child is left behind. No, there is a new responsibility in 
America.
    I don't know what went through the minds of the enemy when they 
attacked us. They must have thought they were attacking a nation that 
was so shallow, so materialistic, so selfish that all we would do was 
maybe file a lawsuit. But what they've learned is, they attacked a 
nation that is strong and courageous and decent, a nation in which 
thousands of our fellow citizens understand that by serving something 
greater than yourself in life, you serve

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the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.
    Thank you for coming. May God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. in the Klotsche Center at the 
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. 
Scott McCallum of Wisconsin; Nancy L. Zimpher, chancellor, University of 
Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Scott Walker, county executive, Milwaukee 
County, WI.