[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 4 (Monday, January 28, 2002)]
[Pages 103-108]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Employees of the Cecil I. Walker Machinery Company in Belle

January 22, 2002

    Thank you very much. Well, thank you for that warm welcome. Steve, I 
appreciate the fact that everybody who works here has got a uniform on 
with my middle name. [Laughter] I don't know if he'll claim me as a 
relative, being a Walker. [Laughter] But hearing how you like to sing at 
parties in West Virginia, I'm not so sure I want to claim you. 
[Laughter]
    But I'm honored you all would have me. I appreciate small-business 
owners, entrepreneurs, people who work hard, people who build a team. I 
want to thank the workers here for such a warm greeting. I also 
appreciate you for your high-quality work. You know, American workers 
are the best in the world, and Walker employees are some of the best 
workers in the world, too.
    I can't think of a better place to talk about economic security than 
at a place that works hard to create jobs and helps people keep a job 
and makes sure that people who work here are treated well, treated with 
respect.
    At its core, an economic security plan for every American has got to 
be the goal of our Government, and it begins with a good education and 
ends with secure retirement. And in between, much of one's life depends 
on being able to find work, good, steady work. And that's how I approach 
decisions about our economy. I ask, are we creating an environment in 
which people can find work. My economic plan is summed up in one word: 
jobs. And that's what all of us in Washington ought to be asking: How do 
we create jobs for people who want to work in America?
    I want to thank members of the West Virginia delegation who are with 
me. Shelley traveled with me from Washington. We flew down together; we 
had a good visit. Every time I talk to her, she constantly talks about 
West Virginia. Every time I talk to her, she doesn't necessarily do 
everything I tell her to. She's got kind of a West Virginia independent 
streak to her. [Laughter] But I'm proud to call her friend, and I'm also 
proud to call Jay Rockefeller friend. He and I are different political 
parties, but that's okay. We both love America.
    The other day I had the honor of signing a piece of legislation at 
the White House, called the Safe and Stable Families Act. It's a really 
good piece of legislation. It's legislation that promotes adoption, 
legislation that helps foster care children. It's a legislation 
sponsored by Republicans and Democrats. Senator Rockefeller was one of 
the sponsors, and I sung his praises there, and I'm happy to come on his 
home turf and sing his praises here for this piece of legislation. So, 
thank you, Senator Rockefeller, for doing it.
    Every job begins with one decision, and that is the decision by 
somebody to say, ``I want to hire you.'' It comes as a surprise to some 
in Washington, though, when you think about that, that most of the 
hiring does not take place at the Government level. Of course, we create 
jobs by hiring people at the Government level. Most hiring takes place 
at small businesses. Most hiring takes place when an employer in the 
private sector says, ``I need you to work for me.'' And so the job of 
the Government, if you think about it, is not to try to create wealth. 
That's not the job of the Government. The job of a Government is to 
create an environment in which more people are willing to hire more 
workers.
    If jobs are the most important part of one of my jobs, then I'm 
going to insist that people ask the question, how do we encourage people 
to hire more people? That's what we ought to be asking. And that's the 
role of Washington, DC.
    It starts with making sure everybody is well educated. You know, 
every new product, every new service starts with a good idea. And then 
that needs to be carried out by talented, skilled, educated people. With 
a

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better educated workforce, our businesses, small and large, all across 
America are going to be able to innovate and make improvements. A better 
educated workforce will mean America is more productive, and higher 
productivity means more jobs and higher paychecks.
    So we've got to get it right when it comes to education. And I'm 
proud to report this is one issue where a handful of us in Washington 
decided to put aside our political parties and focus on what was right 
for America. I had the honor of signing a very good piece of education 
legislation, sponsored by, of all people in the Senate, Ted Kennedy. Now 
look, I traveled the country saying the guy is not a bad guy. [Laughter] 
I think I put him in shock. [Laughter] I know I put the people in 
Crawford, Texas, coffee shop in shock. [Laughter] But on this issue we 
worked well together, Republicans and Democrats. We showed the country 
that party is all right--I'm a proud Republican--it's not nearly as 
important as the education of our children.
    One of the roles of Government is not only to create an environment 
that is good for jobs but to remove obstacles, if they exist, for people 
having jobs. One of the obstacles that exists in our society is a public 
school system that simply shuffles children through the schools. It's so 
much easier to quit on a child, one that's supposedly hard to educate. 
And in some schools, in some school districts, and in some States, we've 
had the practice of just moving children through.
    And that's not right in America. It is not right to quit on kids. 
And so now, as a result of this piece of legislation that both the 
Members here voted for, we asked--we say, ``Look, if you get Federal 
money''--and we're going to spend money, by the way, on certain areas in 
education out of the Federal Government--``but if you get it, you've got 
to show us whether or not the children can read and write and add and 
subtract.''
    I'm asking the simple question, are we getting results with your 
money? And if not, do something different. If we're spending money, we 
expect children to learn to read. And if they can't, you'd better 
change, or otherwise, we're going to give parents different options, so 
that there is no child trapped in a school that will not teach and will 
not change.
    I want to assure you, I remembered where I came from. I trust the 
people of West Virginia to run the schools of West Virginia, so we 
passed power out of Washington to the States. But we expect high 
standards and high accountability and results. If what we're worried 
about is jobs, we've got to remove the obstacle for people finding good 
work by educating every child who lives in America.
    But education doesn't just stop at the elementary school level or 
high school or college. This Nation has got to understand, as technology 
changes, we've got to make sure the workforce changes with it. And 
that's why I strongly support local job training programs.
    We're increasing--significantly increasing the amount of job 
training in our--in the budget I submit to Congress. It recognizes there 
are a lot of good, hard-working people in America who received an 
education, that were skilled in one area, but the job base has shifted, 
and therefore, we better educate people to make sure that they can shift 
with the technologies. And as well, my 2003 budget increases funding for 
Job Corps, which is an effective program that will help disadvantaged 
young people learn how to work.
    So one thing we can do to make sure that people find a job is to 
make sure our education system works well throughout its entirety. 
Another thing to make sure there's an opportunity to create more jobs is 
to have good tax policy that allows people to keep more money, more of 
their own money, that you can put more of your own money in your own 
pocket, and you can spend it.
    When workers have more money--and by the way, it's your money to 
begin with. It's not the Government's money. Somebody said the other 
day, ``Well, the Government is giving back the money.'' Well, it's not 
the Government's money; it's the people who work for a living's money. 
If you have more of your own money, it means you're going to spend more. 
And if you spend more, somebody is going to have to make more of what 
you're spending it on, which means more likely somebody is going to find 
work. That's how the economy works.

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    The same with Walker. I want the Walkers to have more money to 
reinvest in their business. I want the Walkers to be able to have more 
cash flow so they can upgrade the equipment which the workers here use. 
It means it's more likely that somebody is going the find a job for the 
long term.
    Now, there is kind of a wacky economic theory going around 
Washington. It says, ``The more they take in your taxes, the better off 
you'll be.'' [Laughter] It doesn't make any economic sense. It doesn't 
make any dollars and cents. And here in West Virginia, like they do 
elsewhere, they've got to know this is nonsense.
    This economy started slowing down last March. And so the tax cut we 
put in place for everybody who pays taxes came right at the right time. 
If you want to encourage an economy to recover, you let people keep more 
of their own money. If you want to slow down an economy, you stop tax 
cuts. You, in essence, take money away from people, and that's not 
right, folks. I'm worried about job security. The more money people 
have, the more likely it is you're going to be able to find work.
    Now, I'm also worried about people who lost work because of the evil 
ones who attacked us. And I look forward to working with members of both 
political parties to extend unemployment benefits to those who lost 
their job and to help them with health care. Surely, we can come 
together to do that.
    But any good economic stimulus plan must ask the question, how do we 
create more jobs? And one way to do that is to accelerate tax relief for 
workers, and the other way to do that is to make sure the Tax Code 
doesn't punish companies like Walker. We ought to allow them to 
accelerate the depreciation schedule so it is more likely they will buy 
more equipment. And we've got to reform a Tax Code that makes them pay 
more taxes even though their profits are going down.
    And it is time for a vote. It's time for people to set aside who's 
going to benefit on the nightly news, you know, whose picture is going 
to look the best. Let's get a vote up. Let's pass this bill. Let's quit 
talking about it, and let's get the bill going. Congress is coming back 
tomorrow, and I'm confident, if they listen to the people out there, 
they'll know it's time to get a piece of legislation moving that will 
help create jobs and help workers who got affected as a result of 
9/11.
    The next opportunity is to make sure that this Nation has an energy 
policy. This Nation needs an energy policy. Jobs depend on affordable 
energy. If there's a price spike or a disruption in supply, people may 
not have work. And it's also in our Nation's national security interests 
that we become less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
    And we're dependent. We're dependent on energy from some parts of 
the world where sometimes they like us, and sometimes they don't. And we 
need to do something about it. We need an energy bill. We passed one out 
of the House of Representatives, and it's now time for the United States 
Senate to pass a good bill. It's one that says, ``Of course, we'll 
conserve more.'' All of us want to have new technologies that will make 
conservation a part of our life. And we can do a better job in America. 
One of these days, we're going to be driving automobiles that are fueled 
differently. And that's going to be exciting times for America. In other 
words, there's new technologies coming down, and we can encourage those 
technologies. So conservation, technological development have got to be 
an integral part of energy.
    But folks, we need more supply. You know, I'm walking back here in 
the back, and they said, ``I'm now repairing a machine that digs for 
coal.'' We need to use coal. We've got a lot of it, and we need to make 
sure that we've got coal.
    A lot of people don't realize that good energy policy means jobs. 
Bad energy policy means we might lose jobs. Good energy policy means we 
can create jobs.
    I was with Jimmy Hoffa the other day, of the Teamsters, in his 
headquarters. I know, I mean, people don't expect a Republican to be 
hanging out with the Teamsters. [Laughter] But he and I share something 
in common: We worry about people who want to work. He worries about it 
as the head of a mighty union. I worry about it as the President.
    See, I'm the President of everybody, not just a few. I'm the 
President of people

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whether they voted for me or not. I'm the President of union and 
nonunion. I'm the President of Republicans and Democrats and 
independents. And I share something in common with Jimmy, and that is 
how best to get jobs. That's why he and I both know that the energy bill 
ought to make sure we can explore for natural gas and crude oil in 
Alaska. It's good for jobs. He knows what I know: That means work for 
people.
    There's going to be a lot of work. And he knows what I know, as 
well: that we can do so in an environmentally friendly way, that we can 
have a footprint in this vast tundra that will not affect the 
environment and, at the same time, make us less dependent on foreign 
sources of energy.
    Listen, finding oil and gas and coal in our own hemisphere--and 
nuclear power, for that matter--in our own hemisphere is in our national 
security interest. And I ask the Senate to put aside all the politics 
and get me a good energy bill. It's in the best interests for people 
trying to find work, and it's in the best interests of the United States 
of America.
    We can create more opportunities by selling more products overseas. 
You know, I spent a lot of time as the Governor of Texas with the 
farmers. The agricultural sector is an incredibly important part of our 
economy. And one of the benefits we have as a nation is, we can feed 
ourselves. That's good for the national security interest, by the way. 
But we produce more food than we need. We ought to be selling it 
overseas. The more markets available for U.S. products, the more likely 
it is somebody is going to find work.
    It is so important for America to understand that we're good at what 
we do. We can compete with anybody in the world. We've got the most 
productive workforce on the face of the Earth. Therefore, let's open up 
markets to sell our products. The Senate has got to give me the ability 
to do that. It came out of the House; it's bottled up in the Senate. I 
ask them to pass that bill called the trade promotion authority.
    In order to create good jobs, we've got to have a legal system 
that's fair and balanced. I want people who have got a good case to be 
able to make their case in court. But I'm going to tell you, the Walker 
boys fear frivolous and junk lawsuits. I don't know them that well, but 
I can guess they do. [Laughter] And we don't need a lot of regulation 
either. The Federal Government ought to be wise about how we enforce 
standards but not overregulate those who are trying to create work.
    We can do some smart things in Washington to create jobs. One of the 
things the Government needs to do is to spend money on research and 
development. The more research and development there are, the more 
likely it is we'll find interesting answers to energy problems or health 
problems or national security issues. And that translates into jobs.
    And so my budget for 2003 spends $110 billion on Federal research--
on grants for research and development. It makes sense. The more we know 
today about the future, the more likely it is we're going to be able to 
have a workforce that's steadily employed.
    And finally, we've got to make sure that we have retirement 
security, that if part of a secure economic environment begins with 
education, it's got to end with making sure that our Medicare system 
works well, that people are given options, that it's a modern system 
that reflects the modern ways of medicine, and that we have a Social 
Security system that fulfills the promise to the elderly but recognizes 
we better reform her for the younger workers so that they will have a 
Social Security system, one that says if you're relying upon Social 
Security today, nothing changes. The promise we have made you will be a 
promise this Government will keep.
    But if you're a younger worker, we've got to trust you to manage 
your own money, if that's what you choose to do. You see, ownership is a 
part of what it means to have a society that is vibrant, that is a 
society based upon economic security. I want people to own their home, 
and so we've got plans to encourage ownership from renters. I want 
people to be able to manage their own money. I want people to be able to 
own and start their own business. I want them to be able to pass their 
farm or ranch or business from one generation to the next. That's why I 
was so insistent we get rid of the death tax in the Tax Code. Ownership 
is what makes America unique and different. And if we're asking

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about how to make sure we have a secure environment for workers and 
families, let's encourage people to own their own home and business and 
their own retirement accounts. And we can do that.
    As a matter of fact, I'm confident in our economy, confident in--
because I'm confident in the American way of life. You know, they hit us 
on 9/11, but Walker was running before 9/11, and it's running after 9/
11. I mean, some certainly have gotten affected as a result of the 
attacks. But they didn't diminish the entrepreneurial spirit of America. 
They didn't diminish the drive by small-business owners to expand and 
grow and to create jobs. Now we've got--the underpinnings of growth are 
with us. And our job in Washington, DC, is to encourage that growth and 
to always remember that jobs are the cornerstone of good economic 
policy.
    But these are unique times in America, which means we've got to 
really deal with the problem that came upon our shores. The truth of the 
matter is, the best thing I can do for the economy is to make sure the 
enemy doesn't hit us again. And I'm proud of the--[applause]--every 
morning I wake up, walk into the great Oval Office. Well, first I take 
Barney and Spot outside. [Laughter] But I go into this fabulous office--
by the way, it is just a--it's a shrine to our great democracy--and I 
read a threat assessment. You know the intentions of the enemy are to 
hit us again. And I make a vow every morning that I will do everything 
in my power and encourage those of us in positions of responsibility not 
to let that happen.
    You need to know our Government is on full alert, and I hope you 
are, as well. People say, ``What does that mean?'' Well, if you see 
something odd happening, let somebody know--something out of the 
ordinary. It's just like that stewardess on the airplane that time when 
the shoe man showed up. She saw something was odd. [Laughter] She 
thought something was different, and she brought him in. That's what 
Americans must do now as a result of the evil ones hitting us. We've got 
to be on our toes.
    The FBI has changed its culture. The FBI is now focused on 
preventing another attack. We've got agents all across the country 
working day-in and day-out to sniff out any lead, any idea, because our 
biggest job is to prevent them from coming at us. They may come at us, 
but they're not going to get us.
    I want to thank the local law enforcement officers here in West 
Virginia who are working hand in hand with State officers and working 
with our Federal people, too. But the truth of the matter is, the best 
way to make sure that we secure our homeland is to find the enemy where 
they hide and bring them to justice, and that's exactly what we're going 
to do.
    Many of you have got relatives in the military, and I want to thank 
you, and you thank them on behalf of their Commander in Chief. Put the 
military to a task, and the military has performed brilliantly.
    We told the world, I told the world, our Government has told the 
world, our country has told the world, that this compassionate, generous 
Nation will not let terror stand, that wherever we find terror, we will 
deal with it. We put a great coalition together, people who understand 
that this is an historic opportunity and a moment in which those who 
love freedom must not blink and must not tire, that--I made it clear 
that if you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, we're going to 
treat you like a terrorist.
    And the Taliban learned that lesson because of our United States 
military. They're not in power. And by routing them out of power, this 
great Nation not only defended freedom, not only sent a clear message 
about our intention, but this great Nation liberated a people. We 
liberated women and children. We freed people from incredible 
oppression. What a proud moment for America, that we stood for what we 
believe and, in so doing, gave people a better chance for life.
    I want to thank you all and thank the American people for your 
patience. If we tire, the world will tire. If we get impatient, the 
terrorists win. Yet our great Nation is bound by such a love for freedom 
and the desire not for revenge but for justice that we're not going to 
tire, that we will stay the course.
    Families in America have suffered the greatest sacrifice of all, the 
loss of a loved one. But in this case, the cause is noble, and it is 
just. We fight for freedom and the ability for our children and 
grandchildren to grow

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up in a peaceful world, one that does not fear murderers coming onto our 
shore and killing through acts of terror.
    This country must not yield. We must seize this moment of history. 
It is this generation's calling, and we are not going to let the world 
down. We're ready; we're steady; we're resolved. And we will rout out 
the terrorists, no matter what cave they think they can hide in, and 
bring them to justice.
    You know, I was floored to think about the attitudes of the enemy 
when they thought we were soft. I couldn't figure out which TV show they 
had been watching. [Laughter] I mean, can you imagine somebody saying 
the great United States won't respond, or the great United States really 
doesn't care, won't commit the resources necessary to rid the world of 
evil? But my oh my, did they make a huge mistake.
    They also didn't understand the character of the country. They don't 
understand how good we are. They don't understand America's values: the 
values of freedom of worship no matter what religion you choose, freedom 
to speak, freedom to run for office, freedom to vote, freedom to be--to 
work for your family so your family can live in a peaceful world. They 
don't understand that. They must not understand it.
    I'm asked all the time, ``What can I do to help?'' Well, what you 
could do to help for a while was to travel, and it looks like we're 
getting better. Airlines are filling up, and people are going to 
different destination places. But the truth of the matter is, if you 
want to fight evil--and make no mistake about it, this is good versus 
evil--if you want to fight evil, do some good.
    If you're interested in fighting evil, tell your children you love 
them every day this year. If you want to fight off evil, get involved in 
the school system and make it as good as it can be. Teach a child to 
read. If you want to fight evil, go to your church or synagogue or 
mosque and start a program that will love a neighbor. If you want to 
fight evil, go see a shut-in and say, ``What can I do to help?''
    You see, the great character of America is not defined necessarily 
by our military actions, although that counts. The great character of 
America is defined by millions of acts of decency and kindness that take 
place every day all across our country.
    The evil ones struck, but out of this will come incredible good. The 
world will be more peaceful when we accomplish our mission. And this 
country will be more compassionate and more decent and more loving.
    It's such an honor to be the President of a land that has achieved 
so much but with much more to do. Thank you for giving me the chance to 
come, and thank you for giving me the chance to be your President.
    May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 1 p.m. in the Engine Rebuild Center of the 
Walker Machinery Co. Powertrain and Engine Rebuild Facility. In his 
remarks, he referred to Steve Walker, president and chief executive 
officer, Cecil I. Walker Machinery Co.; James P. Hoffa, general 
president, International Brotherhood of Teamsters; and Richard C. Reid, 
a passenger on American Airlines Flight AA63 who allegedly tried to 
ignite an explosive device in his shoe while en route from Paris to 
Miami on December 22, 2001.