[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[November 2, 2002]
[Pages 1976-1982]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in Atlanta, Georgia
November 2, 2002

    The President. Thank you all very much. Thank you all. Glad I came. 
So you're probably wondering what Sonny--I mean, what Saxby said. He said, ``Keep it short. The Bulldogs are 
playing.''
    Really what he was saying is, ``It's 
time to quit the sermons and start passing the plate.'' That means it's 
time to turn out the vote. I'm here in the great State of Georgia 
because I want all the citizens of this State to understand that we have 
a responsibility, as Americans in a land of freedom, to vote. See, we 
have a responsibility. If you believe in democracy, if you love freedom, 
then you have a responsibility to go to the polls next Tuesday. And I'm 
not talking about just a handful of Georgia citizens; I mean everybody. 
Republicans and Democrats and people who could care less about political 
parties need to do their duty.
    But when you get inside that box, I've got some suggestions: For the 
good of Georgia and for the good of the country, Saxby 
Chambliss needs to be the U.S. Senator. For 
the good of the 11th, Phil Gingrey needs to be 
the U.S. Congressman. And for the good of the schoolchildren of Georgia 
and the taxpayers of Georgia, Sonny Perdue 
ought to be the next Governor.
    I appreciate Sonny. I appreciate him being 
straightforward, down to earth, tells it like it is. That's why he's 
going to be a fine Governor. I appreciate the fact that he set education 
as a priority. That's why he's going to be a fine Governor. I appreciate 
the fact that he has actually met a payroll before. [Laughter] That's 
why he's going to be a fine Governor.
    No, I appreciate Sonny being here. And I 
appreciate the members of the mighty Georgia congressional delegation 
for being here as well, Mac Collins and Johnny 
Isakson and John Linder and Bob Barr. I appreciate their 
friendship, and I appreciate their service to our country.
    I want to thank all the candidates who are here. I want to thank the 
grassroots activists who have come. And I want to thank you for 
accepting the fact that you

[[Page 1977]]

drew the short straw today. Laura is in another 
State. [Laughter]
    Audience members. [Inaudible]
    The President. I understand. Yes, she was 
here yesterday; he's right. You got stuck with me. But I can't tell you 
how proud I am of her. She is a big backer of Saxby and Sonny, everybody else 
running here in Georgia. She understands good government. How you get 
good government is, you put good people in place. She sends her best. 
She sends her love. And I'm telling you, she's doing a great job as the 
First Lady of America.
    I want to thank the grassroots activists who have worked so hard in 
the past for what you're about to do. Today and tomorrow and Monday and 
Tuesday, you need to do everything you can to turn out the vote. You 
need to go to your coffee shops and tell people they've got to vote and 
talk up these good candidates. You need to go to your houses of worship, 
remind people they have an obligation to vote.
    And don't be afraid of taking this message to discerning Democrats. 
They want good government. They want the best candidates. And when they 
hear of the stories of these three candidates up there, they're going to 
support them. And don't be afraid of taking your message to 
independents. Take the message, work hard, turn out the vote, and when 
you do, we'll realize victory on November the 5th.
    And there are reasons why--and there are important reasons why these 
good candidates need to win. We've got some hurdles to cross here in 
America. We've got some big challenges ahead of us. One of the biggest 
challenges we have is the fact that our economy is just kind of bumping 
along. It's not as strong as it should be. There are people looking for 
work, and they can't find a job, which means we've got a problem. People 
want to put food on the table, and they're unable to find work, which 
means we've got to have people in the Senate and in the United States 
Congress who understand the role of Government is not to create wealth 
but to create an environment in which the small business can grow to be 
a big business.
    Here's the page of the textbook we read from--the economics 
textbook, that is. We strongly believe that if you let a person keep 
more of their own money, they're likely to demand a good or a service. 
And when they demand a good or a service, somebody is likely to produce 
the good or a service. And when somebody produces that good or a 
service, somebody in Georgia and around America is more likely to find 
work. The best way to make sure people can find work is to let people 
keep more of their own money. And the best way to do that is to make the 
tax cuts permanent.
    The thing I like about Saxby and about 
Phil is, they understand up in Washington we're 
not spending the Government's money. We're not giving you back the 
Government's money. It's the people's money.
    No, there are some things we can do to work together to make the job 
base increase. We need to have us a terrorism insurance bill. That bill 
says that terrorists attack; we understand; we need the Government to 
underwrite insurance so that big construction projects can get going 
forward, so our hardhats can get back to work, so those hard-working 
Americans all across the country are able to put food on the table. I 
look forward to working with them and the Congress to get a good bill 
out, one by the way that rewards the hardhats and not America's trial 
lawyers.
    So long as this economy is bumping along and so long as people can't 
find work, you've just got to know we're going to be doing everything we 
can to create jobs. And I need people up in the United States Congress 
who will work with me to do just that. And the two best people to do 
just that is Saxby Chambliss for the Senate 
and Phil Gingrey for the United States House of 
Representatives.
    We need people up there--we can work together to make sure our 
education system

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is strong. I want to thank Saxby for his 
strong support, unwavering support for an education bill which is going 
to really help the schoolchildren of the State of Georgia. He, along 
with the other Members up here on the stage, worked with me to get $1.2 
billion of Federal money for the schools of Georgia. That's a good sum 
of money for the people of Georgia.
    But for the first time, we've got a new frame of mind when it comes 
to children, a frame of mind which shows that Saxby is an optimistic person about our future. See, it says, 
every child can learn. That's what we believe. Every child can learn. We 
believe in high standards and high expectations. We believe strongly in 
challenging what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. We 
understand if you lower the bar, you're going to get lousy results.
    In that bill we also understand that the people who care more about 
the children in Georgia are Georgian citizens, not bureaucrats in 
Washington, DC, so we passed power out of Washington. We believe in 
local control of schools.
    But also in this bill, we finally started asking the question, when 
we spend that $1.2 billion here, are we getting our money's worth? If 
you believe every child can learn, then you want to know if every child 
is learning. If you believe every child can read, then you want to know. 
And that's why, for the first time in our Nation's history, we're seeing 
a return for this money: ``Why don't you show us. Show us whether or not 
the children are learning to read and write and add and subtract.'' And 
when we see they are, I promise you, we'll praise the teachers. And for 
those of you who are teachers out there, thank you for being involved in 
such a noble, important profession.
    But it's also important to understand that if things aren't working, 
when we find children trapped in schools which won't teach and won't 
change, it's important to have people elected who are willing to 
challenge the status quo. No child, not one single child, should be left 
behind in the State of Georgia. I appreciate Saxby's strong support for the education bill and his clear 
vision for how to improve education for every child, not just a few but 
for every single child who lives in the great State of Georgia.
    I also look forward to working with Saxby and Phil on the health issue. 
We've got a problem in health. One of the problems is, there's too many 
junk lawsuits, too many frivolous lawsuits which make it hard for people 
to have access to the courts. If you've got junk lawsuits clogging up 
the courts, you can't get access to the courts. But as importantly, 
these frivolous lawsuits are running up the cost of medicine, and 
they're driving doctors out of the practice of medicine, which makes it 
harder for people to be able to find a professional help they need. For 
the sake of good health care, for the sake of affordable and accessible 
health care, we need medical liability reform at the Federal level.
    And we need a Medicare system which works. Medicine is modern; it's 
evolving. Technology is changing medicine. New discoveries are changing 
medicine. But Medicare is not changing. It's stuck in the past. For the 
sake of fulfilling our promises to our seniors, we need a Medicare 
system which is modernized, and that means prescription drugs for every 
senior in America. And Saxby Chambliss and 
Phil Gingrey will help me deliver that promise 
to the seniors.
    There's one other--a lot of issues that are going to be important, 
and I need an ally there in the Senate. Saxby is an ally. Make no mistake about it, in this race, if 
you're interested in sending an ally to the President, that ally is 
Saxby Chambliss. It doesn't matter what they're putting on the TV 
screens. I know the definition of ``ally.''
    I need an ally in the Senate on judges. We've got a problem with our 
Federal judges. The Senate has done a lousy job in confirming my judges. 
They have done such a lousy job that there are too many vacancies around 
the country. Vacancies on

[[Page 1979]]

the Federal benches mean people are denied justice, and that's not 
right. Part of the problem is, there's just too much bickering, too much 
ugly politics. Part of the problem is, they don't like the nature of the 
people I'm nominating. See, the kind of people I've put up there are 
honest, honorable people, who will not use the bench from which to 
legislate but will use the bench from which to strictly interpret the 
Constitution. If the people of Georgia are interested in a sound 
judiciary, they need to send Saxby Chambliss 
to the United States Senate.
    There's a lot of issues we'll work on together, but no bigger issue 
than protecting the American people from attack. That's still an issue 
because there's still an enemy lurking around which hates America, and 
they hate us for what we love. We love freedom, and we're not changing. 
We love the fact that people can worship an almighty God freely in 
America. We love every aspect about freedom. And as long as we hold 
freedom dear, there's an enemy lurking around out there which will try 
to cause further harm on the American people. That's just the way it is. 
That's the clear reality we face.
    So we have an awesome responsibility to do everything we can to 
protect you. You need to know there's a lot of really good people at the 
Federal, State, and local level working hard to protect you, running 
down every hint, every idea. Anytime we get a whisper that somebody is 
thinking about doing something or talking about doing something to the 
American people, we're moving on it; we're disrupting; we're denying. We 
understand the stakes.
    But we can do a better job of protecting the American people. We can 
do a better job by creating a Department of Homeland Security, one which 
needs to be set up correctly so that it can function properly on behalf 
of the American people. As I was beginning to set up the Department of 
Homeland Security, I knew one person I could turn to for good advice, 
somebody whose judgment I could trust, somebody from the State of 
Georgia who has a good vision, somebody who was put in a position as the 
chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, 
and that person I turned to advice was Saxby Chambliss.
    And we got a good bill out of the House of Representatives, but they 
can't get it out of the Senate. It's stuck in the Senate. Here we are 
with a threat to the United States people, and we can't get us a 
homeland security bill. And the reason why is, some in the Senate wanted 
to extract too high a price from this President and future Presidents. 
They asked me to give up a power Presidents have had for 40 years, since 
John Kennedy was the President, and that is the ability to suspend 
collective bargaining rules in any Department in the Federal Government 
when national security is at stake.
    In other words, I need to be able to suspend rules that prevents us 
from doing everything in our power to protect you. If some of the 
Senators had their way, these rules would apply to the Department of 
Agriculture but not to the Homeland Security Department. These rules 
would be okay for a Department that deals with farmers but not with a 
Department dealing with your national security. I need to have the 
ability to put the right people at the right place at the right time to 
protect the American people, and Saxby Chambliss understands that.
    I sure would like to have a Senator Chambliss. I wouldn't have to be worried about his vote. I 
wouldn't have to be worried about him being captured by special 
interests in Washington, DC. The only interest he has in mind is the 
interest I have in mind, which is the protection of the American people.
    And the best way to protect the American people is to chase these 
killers down, one at a time, and bring them to justice, which is what 
we're going to do. Therapy isn't going to work on them. [Laughter]

[[Page 1980]]

    I asked the Congress to join me in passing the largest increase in 
defense spending since Ronald Reagan was the President, and they did. 
And it sends two messages, two messages I want to share with you today. 
One, anytime we put our troops into harm's way, they deserve the best 
pay, the best training, and the best possible equipment. And secondly, 
we're in this deal for the long haul. That increase in defense spending 
should say to friend and foe alike, there's no quit in the American 
people. When it comes to the defense of our freedom, there's no 
artificial time; there's no calendar on my desk that says, well, time's 
up. Time isn't up until the United States is secure and we have done our 
duty to future generations of Americans by defeating the agents of 
terror.
    This is a different kind of war. In the old days you used to say, 
``Well, you destroyed so many tanks or airplanes. We're making 
progress.'' That's not the way this war is conducted. They don't have 
tanks. They've got caves, and they've got suiciders. And they're willing 
to send youngsters to their suicidal death. These people hijacked a 
great religion to murder in the name of that religion.
    So we've just got to hunt them down. There's no cave dark enough, 
deep enough. There's no corner of the world shady enough for the long 
arm of justice of the United States and our friends and allies. You've 
got to understand, the doctrine which says, ``Either you're with us or 
with the enemy,'' it still stands. Slowly but surely, we're dismantling 
them. We've got them on the run, and we're going to keep them on the 
run.
    This is a different kind of world we live in. September the 11th, 
2001, changed the stakes, and it's important for all of us in America to 
understand that. It's important for us to see the world the way it is, 
not the way we hope it would be. It used to be that oceans could protect 
us from threats, that two vast oceans could protect the American people 
from a threat which was gathering abroad. And we really had the luxury, 
if you think about it, for picking and choosing if we were to be 
involved or not. September 11th changed that. All of a sudden, the 
battlefield is here at home. And therefore, we must deal with each 
threat seriously. We must see threats as they are.
    And that's why I brought up the cause to Congress and the American 
people and the international community to fully debate the issue of 
Saddam Hussein. He's a threat to America. 
He's a threat to our close friends and allies. He's a man who has said 
he wouldn't have weapons of mass destruction, but he's got them. He's a 
man who at one time, we know for certain, was close to having a nuclear 
weapon. We don't know how close he is today, because he shut down his 
country. You know, not only does he have weapons of mass destruction, 
but incredibly enough, he has used weapons of mass destruction. And he's 
used weapons of mass destruction not only against people in his 
neighborhood, but he's used them against his own people.
    He hates America. He can't stand what we 
stand for. He's had connections with shadowy terrorist networks like Al 
Qaida. He would like nothing more than to use an Al Qaida-type network, 
if not Al Qaida itself, to be the advanced army to utilize his training 
and his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction on his most hated enemy, 
the American people.
    Therefore, I felt it was important for us to understand the nature 
of the threat, to realize the changing circumstances of the American 
vulnerability requires us to be steadfast and strong when it comes to 
dealing with potential threats to the American people. It's my most 
important job.
    I went to the United Nations because I wanted to make it clear to 
the United Nations that, one, we want them to succeed; we want them to 
be an effective organization in helping us keep the peace; we want them 
to have backbone. We want them to have the capacity to say to

[[Page 1981]]

somebody who 16 times has defied resolution 
after resolution after resolution, ``Enough is enough.''
    The message to that august body is: Be effective; be the United 
Nations, not the League of Nations. The Congress spoke with one voice, 
and here's what we said to the world: If the United Nations does not 
have the backbone to disarm Saddam Hussein like they said he should do, 
and if Saddam Hussein will not disarm like he 
said he would, for the sake of peace, for the sake of freedom, for the 
sake of a secure future, the United States will lead a coalition to 
disarm Saddam Hussein.
    We have an obligation, all of us elected to office have an 
obligation to protect the American people. But you know what I believe? 
I believe out of the evil done to America is going to come some great 
good, because we're a great country. I can't imagine what was going 
through the minds of the enemy when they hit us. They probably assumed 
that materialism was the national religion, that we were so 
materialistic, that we were self-absorbed and selfish that after the 
attacks America would take a step back and maybe file a lawsuit or two. 
[Laughter]
    They don't understand the country like we do. I believe that by 
being steadfast and strong, by remembering that this Nation never 
conquers but we liberate, by remembering that example of Afghanistan 
when our troops went in to liberate people--that young girls for the 
first time went to school, thanks to the United States and our friends 
and allies--by being diligent in our pursuit of terror, the pursuit of 
the terrorists, and remembering that freedom is not an American gift to 
the world, it is God-given, holding those values dear, that we can 
achieve peace, that we can achieve peace not only for America and 
Americans, but we can achieve peace in parts of the world which have 
quit on peace.
    No, I believe out of the evil done to America is going to come a 
peaceful world. And I know out of the evil done here at home can come a 
better world for all Americans. Anytime anybody hurts, we all hurt. And 
we've got to remember, amongst the plenty, there are pockets of despair 
and loneliness. Some communities, you say ``American Dream,'' and people 
go, ``What the heck are you talking about? `American Dream,' I don't 
understand that.''
    And therefore, we must do everything we can at the Government level 
to pass laws necessary to help people help themselves, to make society 
work better. I talked about some today, education and health. But we've 
got to remember that Government can pass out money, but it can't put 
hope in people's hearts. It can't put a sense of purpose in people's 
lives. It can't heal the hurt that we find in many of our neighborhoods.
    A better America happens when we save souls, one person at a time. 
And that happens when an American puts their arm around somebody who 
needs help, and says, ``I love you. What can I do to help you?'' If you 
want to fight evil, love your neighbor just like you'd like to be loved 
yourselves.
    No, the spirit of America is strong. It's alive, and it's well. The 
spirit talks about making sure that democracy flourishes by going to do 
your duty. It talks about the willingness to defend freedom, no matter 
the cost. It also talks about serving something greater than yourself to 
make America the greatest country it can possibly be.
    Today I met Frances Grove, of the Literacy 
Volunteers of America. She came out to Air Force One to say hello, 
probably because she's a part of my mother's army to fight illiteracy. 
But nevertheless, she's an example of what I'm talking about. See, each 
of us can make a difference to make sure that the evil done to America 
is--doesn't stand. Each of us can help, by helping people in need. It 
doesn't matter whether you work with Frances Grove or mentor a child or 
run a Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop. It doesn't matter whether you feed 
the homeless or make sure people

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who are--people are--people who have hurt find love. That's what matters 
in life, and that's what's happening.
    Perhaps the most vivid example of the strength of the American 
spirit, of what I'm talking about, took place on Flight 93. You remember 
that horrible day, when the people were flying across the country. They 
learned the plane they were on was going to be used as a weapon. They 
told their loved ones goodbye. History will show they said a prayer. One 
guy said, ``Let's roll.'' They took the plane into the ground to serve 
something greater than themselves. They represented the absolute 
strength of the American spirit.
    I'm going to tell you this: Out of the evil done to America is going 
to come some incredible good. I can say that with certainty. It's going 
to be a peaceful world, a better world. I say it with certainty because 
I understand the American spirit is alive and well. And I also 
understand that this country is the greatest country, full of the 
finest, most decent, compassionate people on the face of the Earth.
    I want to thank you for being a part of this great country. Thank 
you for doing your duty. May God bless you, and may God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 12:18 p.m. at the Cobb Galleria Centre. In 
his remarks, he referred to gubernatorial candidate Sonny Perdue; 
senatorial candidate Saxby Chambliss; Phil Gingrey, candidate for 
Georgia's 11th Congressional District; and President Saddam Hussein of 
Iraq.