[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 21 (Monday, May 28, 2001)]
[Pages 791-794]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Republican National Committee Gala

May 22, 2001

    Thank you all very much. Mr. Vice President, thank you for that kind 
introduction. Governor Gilmore, thank you very much for agreeing to 
become the chairman of the Republican Party. Our party will thrive under 
your leadership, and we appreciate you doing this, sir.
    I want to thank all the folks who worked so hard on this dinner 
tonight--Ann Wagner, Al Hoffman, Jeff and Nancy Marcus from the great 
State of Texas, all the table chairmen. Thank you so much for your 
generosity.
    I'm honored to be able to say--to introduce the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, Denny Hastert. Mr. Speaker, you and your team are 
doing a fantastic job.
    I haven't seen Congressman Armey here, but I know Congressman DeLay 
is here, as are many other Members of the House of Representatives. I 
can assure you, knowing that we've got such a fine leadership team and a 
solid core in the House gives the Vice President and me a lot of 
comfort. And I can't tell you how joyous it is to work with this fine 
Speaker and the members of his team.
    I would like to have introduced Majority Leader Lott, but he and the 
other Senators are working as hard as they can to get a meaningful, real 
tax relief package out of the United States Senate. It is time for the 
Senate to stop delaying tax relief. It is time to move the package on, 
for the good of the American people.
    I'm so thankful that I did well at the altar. America is better off 
for it. We've got a fabulous First Lady in Laura Bush.
    We came to your dinner last year, and I remember the warm welcome in 
the middle of a hard-fought campaign. A lot of things have changed since 
then. Last year I had to fly halfway across the country to get here. 
Today it took me 5 minutes. [Laughter] For another thing, I was running 
against the Vice President. This time around I brought a fantastic Vice 
President with me. And of course, it's a great joy to welcome Lynn 
Cheney, as well. The best decision I made in 2000 was to ask Dick Cheney 
to be my running mate.
    I want to thank you all very much for your generous contributions so 
that my drive was only 5 minutes. [Laughter] I appreciate your support 
during the campaign, and I appreciate so very much your support to make 
sure our agenda gets advanced.
    As well, there are members of my Cabinet who are here. I'm really 
proud of the men and women who decided to serve our country. It's a 
diverse group of folks who are dedicated to one proposition, a hopeful 
America.

[[Page 792]]

And if my Cabinet Secretaries would stand, I'd appreciate you 
recognizing them. [Applause]
    And finally, I've assembled one of the finest staffs a President has 
ever put together, headed by Andy Card and National Security Adviser 
Rice, Karen Hughes and Karl Rove. All these folks work harmoniously. 
They do what's right for America, and our Nation should be proud that 
such fine citizens are willing to dedicate their life to this great 
country.
    Laura and I have had the honor of living in the White House for 4 
months and 2 days. That's already one-twelfth of a term, and we haven't 
wasted a day. I have visited 28 States and two countries. I met with 46 
heads of state and more than 300 Members of the House and the Senate; 
four Cabinet meetings, one speech to Congress, not to mention a Cinco de 
Mayo festival, a gathering of Hall of Famers, celebrations for Saint 
Patrick's and Cuban Independence Day, and tee-ball.
    It's been a joyous time for us in the White House and a high honor. 
And it's been a busy time, and that's just the way I like it. I often 
said during the campaign that Dick Cheney and I were not going to 
Washington just to mark time. We came to make good on our commitments 
for the great people of America. We came to get something done. We 
weren't afraid to state our case, nor were we afraid to work with 
anybody who heard our cause. We came not to have Washington change us 
but for us to change Washington.
    And I think we started doing that in our own party. We welcome new 
faces, because ours is a philosophy that is conservative and 
compassionate. Ours is a philosophy that holds out hope for every single 
American, no matter what their background or their heritage may be.
    We're also a party of principle and optimism. We believe strongly in 
our soul not in the supreme wisdom of Washington but in the wisdom of 
the American people. Ours is an administration, as America is coming to 
learn, that is not afraid to take on the tough issues confronting our 
country; that we're willing to--[applause]. I can remember during the 
campaign, and perhaps you all do as well, about the collective yawn from 
members in the Fourth Estate about tax relief. People used to say, 
``Well, he's just saying that because it might make good politics.'' No, 
Dick Cheney and I talked about tax relief because we thought it was 
right for the country. This Nation can afford tax relief, and we can't 
afford not to have it, with our economy slowing down.
    And we're making good progress. We're making good progress. I 
believe we convinced Congress to cut the rates on everybody who pays 
taxes. We've eliminated this business about the Congress getting to pick 
and choose who the winners and losers are in the Tax Code. Our 
philosophy was fair and decent, and it said loud and clear, ``if you pay 
taxes in America, you ought to get tax relief.'' We believe we ought to 
do something about the marriage penalty. And we believe, once and for 
all, we need to get rid of the death tax in the Tax Code. Again Mr. 
Speaker, I want to thank you for your--for working with us on this 
issue.
    Ours is an administration that's willing to talk openly about Social 
Security reform. Many candidates and politicians and others who have 
been elected to office never wanted to talk about Social Security. It 
was called the third rail of American politics. This is an 
administration that knows we'd better make sure Social Security is 
reformed, safe, and solvent for the older generation, around for the 
younger generation. And we'll seize the moment to get it done.
    Ours is an administration that recognized our Nation has an energy 
problem, and we laid out solutions to do something about it. I'm sure 
that maybe some other administration has talked about energy, but we put 
out a concrete, specific plan, with over 100 recommendations--100 
proposals--to ease the burden on the American working people.
    Our plan starts with wise conservation, the use of technology to 
make sure that we are better stewards of our energy. But California has 
taught us a lesson: The State with the second best record of 
conservation is a State which ran out of energy. And so we need 
additional supplies. We need reliable supplies. We need a balanced 
approach to our energy. We need clean coal technology and natural gas 
exploration, safe nuclear power, as well as alternative sources of 
energy.

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    And finally, we must face up to the problem that we're having 
problems getting energy from the powerplant to the light switch. We need 
to modernize our infrastructure. No, ours is an administration that 
won't simply look at a problem; we'll address it in a concrete, specific 
way.
    We need to have better language when it comes to energy. I mean, the 
people of this country have somehow been told that you're either for the 
environment and against energy policy, or you're for an energy policy or 
against the environment. That's the old way of thinking. That's stale, 
old-style politics. You and I know it's not either/or; with good, sound 
policy, it's both. We can increase our energy supplies so the people can 
find work, and we can protect our environment at the same time.
    Ours is an administration that's also pushing a compassionate 
conservative vision. It starts with making sure that every child is 
educated in America. We've laid out a bill that we're working on in the 
Congress right now that talks about sound, solid principles to make sure 
that not one child gets left behind. It begins by setting high standards 
for every child.
    Ours is an administration that believes that every child can learn. 
And we refuse to accept low standards, because we understand low 
standards means lousy results for children all across the country. Ours 
is an administration that trusts the local people to chart the path to 
excellence.
    And ours is an administration that insists upon results. We want to 
know. We want to know whether our children are learning to read and 
write and add and subtract. And if they are, we'll praise the teachers. 
But if not, we'll demand something else happens for those children. 
There are no second-rate children in this great land of ours, and there 
are no second-rate dreams, as far as we're concerned.
    We've taken on a different task when it comes to welfare reform. I 
strongly believe that this Nation must rally the armies of compassion 
which exist in every neighborhood in America. The reason I believe that 
is because I understand the true strength of our country. It's not in 
the halls of Government; it's in the hearts and souls of loving 
citizens. I understand cultures and societies change one heart, one 
soul, one conscience at a time. And government can fund, but what 
government can't do is cause people to love one another.
    Perhaps the most important initiative of all of the Bush/Cheney 
administration is to push a Faith-Based Initiative that says loud and 
clear, ``government will never fund religion, but government will stand 
side by side with the soldiers in the armies of compassion to make sure 
lost souls are found, to make sure wanting children have somebody to 
love them in the form of a mentor.''
    No question, this is an ambitious agenda, but it's exactly what the 
Vice President and I told the American people we would do. You know, 
Washington is a place with many temptations, and one of them is to 
settle in and just go along and forget about the commitments you made 
during the course of a campaign. But this is an administration which 
will keep its word, and we expect others to do so, as well. We may not 
always agree, but hopefully, we can be honest with each other and 
respect each other and change the tone of Washington, DC, so that when 
people look at the Nation's Capital, they will be proud of what they 
see.
    Changing the tone of our Nation's Capital hasn't been easy. I 
realize that in politics, old ways die hard. Washington at times has got 
a plenty sharp edge to it. The only thing I can do and the only thing 
Dick Cheney and others in our administration can do is to control our 
own responses. When I hear my policies and my nominees attacked in a 
hostile and partisan way, I simply hear the echoes of an era behind us. 
I'm not going to take the bait. I'm going to lead this country to a new 
level of respect. I came to this town to change the tone of the Capital, 
and I'm not going to quit.
    You know, Mark Twain used to say, ``Always do right. This will 
gratify some of the people and astonish the rest.'' [Laughter] We're 
going to do the right thing. We're going to pass an agenda that focuses 
on the American people. We will share credit for success, because we 
understand the best politics is good public policy.
    I think our good party will have a strong record of accomplishment 
to run on. The

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people of this country will be able to say, ``We elected them. They went 
to Washington. They did what they said they were going to do, and the 
people are better off for it.''
    I also think the people of our country will be able to look at their 
Nation's Capital and begin to see a group of folks working hard to usher 
in a period of personal responsibility, a period in our country when 
everybody understands that each of us are responsible for the decisions 
we make in life. It starts with those who are fortunate enough to be a 
mom or a dad--that each of us must understand our primary job, our 
primary focus must be to love our children with all their hearts and all 
our souls.
    The responsibility era says that each of us must be responsible for 
what we say and what we do. And a period of personal responsibility 
understands that we must love a neighbor just like we'd like to love 
themselves. I'm absolutely convinced we're on our way to ushering in 
this new culture, and I believe America will be better for it. And I'm 
honored to be the President during the period of time when this Nation 
will realize its full potential.
    Thank you all for having me. God bless you all, and God bless 
America.

Note: The President spoke at 7:53 p.m. at the D.C. Armory. In his 
remarks, he referred to Gov. James S. Gilmore III of Virginia, chairman, 
Ann Wagner, cochair, and Al Hoffman, Jr., finance chair, Republican 
National Committee; and Jeff Marcus, gala chair, and his wife, Nancy.