[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 3 (Monday, January 21, 2002)]
[Pages 60-63]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Employees of John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois

January 14, 2002

    Thank you all very much. Thank you all. I thought for a while, when 
they told me that I was going to receive a gift here, that old Chuck was 
going to bring a pretzel--[laughter]--those kind that are easy to chew. 
[Laughter] If my mother is listening, Mother, I should have listened to 
you. Always chew your pretzels before you swallow. [Laughter] When I 
work the ropelines, people bring their children, and I always turn to 
the child, especially the teenagers, and say, ``Listen to your mother. 
It's the best advice I can give you.'' I obviously needed to do the same 
thing last night.
    But I'm feeling great and so honored to be here. Thank you very much 
for letting me come to this fantastic plant. I'm impressed by the size 
of these monsters. [Laughter] It kind of makes me think I need a bigger 
ranch. [Laughter]
    I'm also impressed by the quality of the work. It's a great tribute 
to the men and women who work the floor here, which is a great tribute 
to the country, that we've got such good workers, such an 
entrepreneurial spirit. And part of my job is to make sure we preserve 
that spirit.
    It's also an honor to be here on the Mississippi River. The river 
really links our country together, and so I'm going to start here, and 
then I'm going to go down to Missouri to talk to some farmers. And then 
I'm going to go down to New Orleans, to the Port of New Orleans, from 
whence your product and the products you help harvest leave our country 
for foreign markets.
    It's my way of doing a couple of things: one, reminding America 
about how important the food and fiber system is to our economy; 
reminding America that those who grow food and those who help the 
farmers harvest that food are an incredibly important part to the future 
of our country. The food and fiber industry represents $1.3 trillion of 
gross domestic product in the year 2000. It employed over 24 million 
people.
    I'm also here not only to remind people about the importance of food 
and fiber but to remind people that we need to make sure we create jobs 
in this country. And I've got some ideas I want to share with you on how 
we do just that. There's no better place to do this than on the mighty 
Mississippi River.
    I appreciate members of my Cabinet traveling with me, Secretary 
Evans and Secretary Veneman, both of whom are doing a fine job 
representing all segments of our society. I want to thank Members of the 
United States Congress who are here: Senator Harkin from Iowa, Senator 
Fitzgerald from Illinois, thank you both for being here. I appreciate a 
Member of the United States House, Lane Evans, who represents this 
district. And they must have changed the immigration laws because they 
let two Congressmen from Iowa in here. [Laughter] Congressman Gansky and 
Congressman Leach, thank you both for coming.
    I appreciate the mayor of East Moline and the mayor of Moline for 
greeting me here today. Thank you both for coming. I want to thank the 
officers of John Deere. I want to thank Bob Lane and John Gault. And I 
want to thank Chuck Thompson and all the hard-working folks here at this 
plant. Thank you for greeting me. It's my honor to be here.
    The role of Government is not to create wealth; the role of 
Government is to create conditions in which jobs are created, in which 
people can find work. And I want to share with you some of my thoughts 
about how best to do that.
    The first condition to make sure that people can find work is to 
make sure our Nation is secure, secure against an enemy that wants to 
attack us. That starts with having a robust, active, strong homeland 
security for our country.

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    People say, ``What does that mean?'' Well, it means any time you get 
a hint that somebody wants to harm us, you do something about it. It 
means you share intelligence with people all across the world, so that 
we know if somebody is coming our way. It means we've changed the nature 
of our law enforcement, so that preventing an attack is the number one 
priority of the FBI and local law enforcement. It means we're going to 
have our ears up and our eyes open. It means we'll be alert. And it 
means if we catch anybody trying to harm America or thinking about 
harming America, we're going to bring them to justice.
    Bob mentioned the confidence of the American consumer, and there's 
no question the attacks on America on 9/11 have affected our confidence. 
But the more the American citizen realizes that our Federal Government 
in combination with State Government and local authorities are working 
day-in and day-out to prevent any other kind of attack, confidence will 
return.
    But I want to remind my fellow citizens this, that the best way to 
secure the homeland of America is to find the enemy where they think 
they can hide and bring them to justice, no matter where they are. It's 
amazing to me that we've got an enemy, on the one hand, that's willing 
to convince young males to commit suicide on behalf of a cause that's 
empty and, at the same time, try to escape the justice of America in 
caves. They can run; they think they can hide. But this patient, strong 
Nation will stay on the job until we find them, rout them out, and get 
them.
    I'm proud of our military. And for those of you who have got sons 
and daughters or brothers and sisters or moms and dads wearing the 
uniform, you need to be proud, too. They're accomplishing the mission 
that we set out, a mission that is dangerous, a mission that is just. 
After all, we are fighting for the freedoms: the freedom to live the 
life the way you want to, the freedom to worship the way you want to, 
and the chance for our children and our grandchildren to grow up in a 
peaceful and safe society.
    The enemy made a mistake: They thought this Nation was soft. They 
thought because we're a wealthy nation that we wouldn't rise to the 
occasion. Oh my, are they wrong.
    A second way to make sure we've got sustained economic growth is to 
make sure our public school system works well. Recently, last week, I 
had the honor of traveling the country touting the fact that I was able 
to sign a good education bill. I know I shocked people when I stood up 
and said, ``Ted Kennedy is all right.'' [Laughter] Probably shocked him 
more than anybody else. [Laughter]
    But we showed what can happen in Washington when you put party 
politics aside and focus on what's good for the country. And what's good 
for the country is to make sure our education system produces smart, 
intelligent, literate children. And this bill I signed goes a long way 
for helping. It's a great piece of legislation, and I want to thank both 
Republicans and Democrats for working with me to get an education bill 
that America can be proud of.
    I believe the third condition necessary to make sure people can find 
work and those who have work can work harder is to make sure that we 
open up the world for American products. Fearful people want to build 
walls around America; confident people believe we ought to tear them 
down. I'm confident in the American worker. I know the American worker 
can outproduce anybody, anywhere in the world. I'm confident in the 
American farmer. I know the American farmer is more efficient and can 
raise more crop than anybody, anywhere in the world. I'm confident we 
need to open up markets, not close them down. I'm confident we've got to 
get my friend Putin to be buying John Deere products. I'm confident what 
this Nation needs is to level the playing field and have trade that will 
create jobs all across America.
    The fourth ingredient is to make sure we've got an energy supply as 
we head into the future. I oftentimes talk about how important it is to 
have--to be able to grow your own food. Part of the national security of 
the country is to know that we're self-sufficient when it comes to food 
production, that we can grow our own food, we don't have to rely upon 
another nation to feed our people. It's one of the luxuries this Nation 
has. We don't have the same luxury when it comes

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to energy. We are too reliant upon foreign sources of crude oil. We've 
got to do a better job of not only conserving energy, but it seems to 
make sense to me that when we've got energy on our own hemisphere and in 
our own States, we ought to explore for it, to make us less reliant.
    It's in the national security interests of our country to have an 
energy policy. And we need to get Congress to act on a good one. It's 
one that will make us less reliant. It's one that encourages more 
conservation. And it's one that's good for American workers and American 
jobs.
    And finally, in order to make sure we have jobs, in order to make 
sure the economy expands, we've got to have good economic policy out of 
Washington, DC. I know there's a difference of opinion on about what's 
good economic policy, but mine starts with saying this: When the economy 
slows down, one of the best things we can do is let people keep their 
own money so they can spend it. If the economy slows down, one of the 
best answers is tax relief. It trusts local people to spend the money 
the way they want to see fit. If you have more money in your pocket, you 
buy more things, which encourages more production. Consumer demand is 
stimulated by tax relief. And the great thing about our society is when 
consumers demand, generally somebody's there to produce, and so there's 
more jobs as more production takes place.
    Now, there's going to be a debate when we go back to Washington 
about tax relief. But I've made up my mind: The tax relief plan we 
passed, which you're now beginning to feel the effects of, is going to 
be permanent.
    There are some more things that we can do. We need to take care of 
the workers whose lives were affected as a result of the evil ones' 
attacks, by extending unemployment benefits and by helping with their 
health care. I'm confident we can find common ground in Washington, DC, 
and a way to help people. But you know something? Americans don't want 
an unemployment check; Americans want a permanent paycheck, and that's 
got to be the mission of any good stimulus package.
    So we need to work together to figure out ways to create stimulus: 
deductibility for more equipment purchased, speeding up tax relief. 
There are some positive things we can do, if we make up our minds to do 
it, that will give a little extra oomph to an economic recovery that I 
hope is beginning to happen.
    So those are some of the thoughts I wanted to share with you as I 
travel down the Mississippi River: Good stimulus policy, good economic 
policy based on trusting people with their own money, good education 
policy, good trade policy, and a good policy to bring these terrorists 
to justice.
    You know, I am amazed that anybody would think they could attack the 
country. They just didn't understand us. But I understand the great 
strength of our country, and it's the people--it's the people that live 
all across our land. I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican 
or independent, it's the people that make us great. You know why? 
Because this Nation is a nation of heart and soul and strength.
    I am so pleased to hear the stories of moms and dads sitting around 
their dinner table, asking the fundamental question about life, people 
assessing their values: What's the most important thing in life? And 
moms and dads are realizing it's to love your children with all your 
heart and all your soul. No, the evil ones struck us, and they did 
serious damage. But in so doing, they really lifted the spirit of the 
country in a unique way. They brought out the very best in America.
    The best in America takes place when somebody walks across the 
street and says to a neighbor in need, ``What can I do to help you?'' 
Somebody knows there's somebody's shut in and says, ``I think I'm going 
to go spread a little love today.'' The best of America takes place is 
in our churches and synagogues and mosques, when people walk out and 
listen to that call to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved 
yourself, and then do something about it.
    All this takes place, by the way--these millions of acts of kindness 
on a daily basis, which helps define the soul and spirit of America--it 
takes place not because of Government; it takes place because of the 
people of the greatest land on the face of the Earth.
    My call to you is: Work hard like you do; love a neighbor like you'd 
like to be loved yourself; love your children; tell them you

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love them every single day; make sure they turn off the TV so they 
become good readers. [Laughter] And always remember that we're lucky to 
live in such a fabulous nation, the nation called America.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:03 a.m. on the factory floor of John 
Deere Harvester Works. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Jose Moreno 
of East Moline; Mayor Stanley F. Leach of Moline, IL; Robert W. Lane, 
chairman and chief executive officer, Deere & Co.; John S. Gault, 
general manager, John Deere Harvester Works; Chuck Thompson, president, 
United Auto Workers Local 865; and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.