[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 9 (Monday, March 4, 2002)]
[Pages 303-308]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Chamber of Commerce in Charlotte

February 27, 2002

    Thank you. Only in America. [Laughter] Frances, thanks. I appreciate 
your story; I appreciate your courage; and I appreciate your 
introduction. I'm also thankful that Tommy Thompson agreed to leave the 
State of Wisconsin to come and help make sure that Health and Human 
Services was run in the right spirit, in the right, compassionate 
attitude, one in which we fight for Federal funds that are reasonable 
and realistic but understand that the true wisdom and strength of the 
country is at the local level.
    Speaking about the local level, I want to thank the mayor and Parks. 
Thank you very much for being here, as well. I appreciate both you all's 
leadership. The innovation that takes place in this community is 
positive and strong, and that's why we're here, to herald a program that 
actually works. Sometimes they sound good on paper. They read good, but 
the results are short. And that's not the case in Mecklenburg County 
when it comes to putting people to work. So I want to thank you all for 
your leadership.
    I had the privilege of flying down with Sue Myrick and Robin Hayes 
today on the airplane, two really good United States Congressmen from 
the State of North Carolina, people who understand that North 
Carolinians can best run North Carolina, and not people out of 
Washington, DC. So I want to thank you all for coming. And I want to 
thank Rodney Carroll, as well, for being here. I want to thank Carroll 
Gray and members of the Chamber.
    A lot of times I talk about responsibility, ushering in a period of 
responsible behavior in America. There is such thing as corporate 
responsibility, corporate America not only making sure the balance 
sheets are real, that all assets and liabilities are exposed for 
shareholder and employee alike. But there's something about saying, 
``I'm going to do something in the community in which I live,'' working 
hard to take the extra step to employ somebody, to keep them on, to help 
them work through their difficulties. This is a community in which 
corporate North Carolina or corporate Charlotte has heard that call, and 
I want to thank the Chamber for being on the leading edge of encouraging 
corporate responsibility.
    First, let me tell you that, as I said a while ago, the state of 
this Union is very strong. It is clear to me, when I sat in the room 
today, that the state of the State of North Carolina is strong and 
vibrant, at least in this corner of the State, if not the whole State. 
But the state of our Union is strong. We are steady; we're resolved; and 
we are a determined nation.
    You know, the enemy attacked a nation that they thought was weak, 
and man, did they make a mistake. They thought the United States was so 
materialistic, so caught up in a false Hollywood vision of America, that 
we would accept their attack as part of the normalcy in America, that we 
would do nothing about it. And they've now learned that this Nation is 
absolutely resolved to defend that which we hold dearest to our heart, 
and that's freedom--that when somebody attacks freedom, that we'll 
defend it with all our force and all our might. And that's what we're 
doing.

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    I think the country has laid out a clear message: First, that either 
you're with us, or you're against us in the fight for freedom; that 
either you stand beside this great Nation as part of a coalition that 
will defend freedom and defend civilization itself, or you're against 
us.
    I think the message has gotten out. The world is knitted up pretty 
tight when it comes to bringing the Al Qaida and other killers to 
justice. We've had over a thousand arrests around the world, different 
countries, different governments that are putting these Al Qaida people 
behind bars. We're slowly but surely, methodically and patiently 
demolishing Al Qaida so they cannot hit us again.
    We have made it clear that if you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a 
terrorist, if you train a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the 
terrorist. And the Taliban Government in Afghanistan found out exactly 
what I meant, thanks to a strong and spirited, well-motivated, well-
trained United States military, a military of which I am immensely 
proud.
    We have liberated a country. This great Nation seeks not revenge but 
justice, and at the same time, we're not conquerors, but we're 
liberators. We have liberated women and children from the clutches of 
one of the most barbaric regimes history has ever known.
    It was my honor to welcome Mr. Karzai and his Cabinet, including a 
woman minister, to Washington, DC, and hear him firsthand say how 
anxious he is to restore Afghanistan to normalcy, where women and 
children, young girls are educated, just like young boys, where people 
are given a chance in life.
    The Taliban made a terrible mistake, and they paid a dear price. And 
I'm grateful for the United States military for the job it's done, but 
more importantly, so are the average citizens of Afghanistan.
    I want to tell my fellow Americans that we're still in a dangerous 
period when it comes to the first theater in the war against terror--
dangerous because, until we complete our mission, which is to bring all 
Al Qaida killers to justice, that we're going to hunt them down, that we 
will stay on task. The good news for our United States military is that 
the American people are very patient, and they're resolved, just like 
our military is resolved.
    But we're now facing people who send young kids to suicide--on 
suicide missions, and they, themselves, try to hide in caves; a 
leadership which is willing to send some mom's child on a fruitless 
mission in the name of religion, and they, themselves, are doing 
everything they can to hide and not be accountable for what they've 
done.
    But they can't hide long enough. There's no cave deep enough for 
them to avoid the long arm of justice of the United States. And so it 
doesn't matter how long it takes, as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't 
matter if it's a month, a year--Al Qaida, the people who killed 
thousands of United States citizens, the thugs who want to challenge 
freedom wherever it exists, those who use religion in the name of murder 
will be brought to justice.
    But it's not just Al Qaida. The mission is more than just one group 
or one individual. History has called us into action. History has given 
this Nation a chance to lead a coalition to fight terror wherever it 
exists.
    There is a nightmare scenario that we must not let happen. Imagine, 
for example, if a faceless terrorist organization was able to team up 
with a nation which sponsored and developed weapons of mass destruction. 
Imagine how the balance of power in the world would change.
    We're not going to let that happen. The United States of America 
cannot let nations that are not transparent, closed societies, societies 
which harm their citizens, societies which have a past history of being 
not a civilized nation, to develop a weapon of mass destruction, that 
could possibly team up with somebody like the Al Qaida organization, 
which would, therefore, then hold us hostage, hold the coalition 
hostage. We owe it to our children and our children's children to rid 
the world of terror now, so they can grow up in a free society, a 
society without fear, a society without the threat of attack on our own 
homeland.
    The best homeland defense policy is to find out terrorists where 
they live, where they hide, and bring them to justice. And that's what 
I'm going to do, so long as I am the President of the United States. I 
picked a good man to lead the homeland security

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effort. Tom Ridge was the Governor of Pennsylvania.
    The last time I was here in the State of North Carolina, I talked 
about a first-responders initiative, about how the budget I was going to 
submit to Congress not only was going to make national defense a 
priority but also that homeland defense would be a priority. I have 
since done that. We talked about first-responders to make sure that the 
police and fire had a strategy necessary to respond to emergencies if it 
were to occur. I'm also talking about a bioterrorism initiative. I'm 
also talking about a border security initiative.
    One of the interesting things I think that the people of North 
Carolina will appreciate, that I hold in high esteem the United States 
Coast Guard. We've got a plan to beef up the Coast Guard, to modernize 
her ships, to make sure the Coast Guard is available around all the 
coasts of the country to protect the homeland. We've got a better 
intelligence-sharing system in place. We've got a strategy to defend the 
homeland of the United States.
    And every day I ask the question to the FBI Director and others, 
``What have you done to make the homeland more secure?'' My fellow 
citizens need to know we're doing everything in our power to protect 
innocent families.
    There's a lot to be done in Washington, as well. Obviously, we've 
got to fight a recession. My view about the recession is that we'll help 
people with unemployment checks, and we must. But as Congress tries to 
figure out ways of how to deal with this, I always want them to remember 
that people want more than an unemployment check; they want a paycheck. 
And therefore, we ought to have jobs as a central aspect of any economic 
recovery plan, how best to create jobs.
    What should we do? Well, I thought I did something pretty wise, and 
that was last year, when we got a sniff that the economy was pretty darn 
slow, was to fight for a tax relief package that gave people their own 
money to spend. When people have more money in their pocket to spend, it 
creates more demand, which means somebody is producing products, which 
means somebody is getting a job. The more money people have in their 
pockets to spend in the face of recession, the more likely our economy 
is going to come out of a recession. And for those in Washington who 
think they want to roll back the tax relief, they're not going to get to 
do so. The tax relief was right. And it's important for the American 
people that we defend tax relief.
    But there is more to do. I would hope Congress would pass an 
economic stimulus package that will encourage investment in plants and 
equipment. The more investment in plants and equipment, the more likely 
it is a textile worker is going to find a job. The more incentive there 
is for somebody to put a new piece of equipment in a factory, the more 
likely it is somebody is going to work. And so as they debate the 
stimulus package, it's important not only to remember we want to take 
care of those who have been affected by the attacks on 9/11, we also 
want to stimulate jobs, to encourage jobs.
    We also--I submitted in my budget a priority for educating the 
American people, educating our kids. We talked today about the best 
welfare plan--best to make sure we keep people off welfare, besides 
helping them find work--is to make sure they're educated. And the State 
of North Carolina deserves congratulations for having a really good 
public school system. You were tied with Texas, and that's a big 
admission for a Texan to say. [Laughter]
    I want you to know that we passed a good piece of education reform, 
and it ties in directly to what we're talking about today. It says, 
every child matters. We've got to challenge a system that tends to just 
shuffle children through without regard to whether they can read or 
write and add and subtract. We need to focus resources on Title I. We'll 
demand accountability. We'll pass flexibility out of Washington, DC, to 
the local level. We've got a reading program that understands reading is 
the new civil right; if you can't read, you can't succeed in the America 
of the 21st century. This is a great piece of legislation, sponsored by 
both Republicans and Democrats. It shows what can happen when we put our 
Nation ahead of political party, which we must do more of in Washington, 
DC, as far as I'm concerned.
    In order to make sure our economy recovers, in order to make sure 
we've got a balance

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sheet that is reasonable as we go into the out-years, I want to insist 
Congress hold the line in spending, that they not get carried away, that 
they not spend--that what they think sounds like--sounds good is not 
going to work.
    One area in which I'm going to hold the line on the budget, though, 
is on TANF funds. My budget calls for over $17 billion a year for TANF 
funds to be block-granted back to States. Now, there's going to be some 
in Congress that say we've got to reduce the TANF monies, welfare 
monies, because the caseloads have dropped. I don't think we ought to do 
that at this time in history. And so the budget I've submitted holds the 
line on TANF.
    On the other hand, I do think we need some reforms, and I want to 
share with you some of those. But first, let me tell you that there has 
been great success when it came to welfare reform. We've actually 
changed the whole culture from dependency to self-sufficiency. And by 
doing that, the welfare rolls have declined dramatically, and the 
country's better off for it, but more importantly, so are the human 
beings.
    It's so easy to get caught up in statistics, and forget about behind 
each number is a person. And today I have the honor of talking about--of 
hearing from the people involved, the human stories, the real-life 
stories of people that have overcome incredible obstacles.
    I like to tell people, the toughest job in America is a single mom 
trying to raise her children. That's the hardest hill to climb in this 
country. And yet, as a result of a collaborative effort of public-
private partnership here in Mecklenburg County, a place where government 
and business teamed up, many people have been moved from dependency upon 
government to work.
    Now, the system worked, but in order for that to happen, it requires 
a will, a personal determination. Some person has to say, ``I can do 
better and want to do better,'' just like my introducer, Frances 
Cunningham, did. She is a single mom with two teenagers. That, in 
itself, deserves a medal. [Laughter] She has started working with the 
Work First Program, obviously has a job. But I want to quote what she 
said: ``The success of it is, my children see me go to work every day. 
And that makes them go to school every day, because they see Mama isn't 
staying at home.'' The ability for somebody to realize kind of an 
independent life, less dependent upon government, not only affects that 
person but also affects a lot of other people, starting with the 
children--starting with the children.
    I met with Michelle Venegas. Michelle is articulate. I told her she 
speaks better English than I do--[laughter]--although she got hired as a 
translator. She's from Mexico, Tijuana, Mexico. She was working for a 
company that went out of business. She needed a little transition help. 
She found it here in Mecklenburg County. By the way, she, herself, is a 
mom, got a little ninita. She went to the county department of social 
services. She found out they needed someone with Spanish language 
skills. She's now employed full-time by the department.
    Kathleen Collado, I met with her, as well. She's a single mom, 
recently divorced. She had no high school diploma. Imagine how tough her 
future looked. She needed to take a step up in life, and she found help. 
Kathleen was able to get her GED. She polished her interviewing skills 
and now works for U.S. Airways.
    These are stories that are real. But the good news is, in this 
county and all across America, they have happened time and time again. 
There are 20,000 businesses nationwide that have helped 1.1 million 
people go from welfare to work. It is an essential ingredient of what 
the future bill ought to look like.
    We need to make sure that work is an integral part of any welfare 
reauthorization, that the cornerstone of a good bill understands that 
when we help somebody find work--and I emphasize the ``help somebody 
find work''--that leads to more independence, more self-esteem, and more 
joy and hope. And so, as Congress begins to reauthorize, I want to make 
sure that work is an integral component and a strong component. As a 
matter of fact, I believe that within 5 years, 70 percent of the welfare 
recipients must work. As part of the requirement, 70 percent of people 
being helped have got to get to work, and we'll help.

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    The bill must allow for there to be adequate time for training. Of a 
5-day work week, 3 could be devoted to work and 2 to education and job 
training. For the tougher cases, there ought to be time set aside 
exclusively for job training or drug rehabilitation. And high school 
moms ought to be allowed to get credit for going to high school at the 
same time as part of their work requirement. In other words, the system 
ought to insist upon work but encourage work by making sure people have 
got the skills necessary to work or the help necessary to make them a 
responsible person in the workplace.
    Secondly, our public policy must encourage families. Research shows 
that two-parent families are more likely to raise a child that is going 
to go to high school or college, that a child in a two-parent family is 
less likely to get addicted to drugs. Now, I understand there are some 
families that just simply aren't meant to be. I know that. I'm not--I'm 
wise about that. On the other hand, we ought to aim for a goal, a goal 
that recognizes the power and importance of two-parent families in 
America.
    And therefore, the budget I'm submitting and the reform that I hope 
that Congress will insist upon recognizes that premarital counseling can 
work, conflict resolution after marriage is important, antigambling--
help the old man get off the gambling habit will help. Drug and alcohol 
rehabilitation can be part of an important concept about keeping 
families together. We've got $300 million--up to 300 million in the 
budget to encourage parenting and family programs to flourish at the 
local level.
    And as well, I've got $135 million in the budget for abstinence 
education programs. Now, let me be as candid as I can about this. 
Abstinence works every time--[laughter]--when it comes to making sure 
somebody may not have an unwanted child or someone picks up sexually 
transmitted disease. And this society ought to give children the benefit 
of the doubt. We ought not to assume that our culture is automatically 
going to lead a child to defy an abstinence education program. We ought 
to try it. We ought to work hard. We ought to shoot for the ideal in 
society and not get drug down by the cynics. And so part of making sure 
that welfare reauthorization is going to achieve objectives is to 
promote family and to encourage right choices amongst American youth.
    Thirdly, we must trust local officials to manage the money necessary 
to achieve certain objectives and goals. We have got to have flexibility 
at the Federal level. Tommy understands that. It's one of the main 
reasons I asked him to become the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services. He was a Governor; I was a Governor. We understand that the 
more flexibility there is at the local level, the more possible it is to 
meet local needs and, therefore, meet local and national objectives, to 
meet goals.
    And so one of the things we're going to ask Congress is not to 
micromanage the system. There are hundreds of Federal welfare programs. 
For those of you who work in this line of work, you know what I'm 
talking about--hundreds of them, many of them with incredible hoops that 
need to be jumped through in order to be able to access funds. It is not 
necessary to have hundreds of welfare programs. What's necessary is to 
make a commitment to set goals, to expect results, and to trust local 
people in managing the dollars. And that's the spirit of welfare reform.
    And we're going to push hard for this initiative in the United 
States Congress. I can't guarantee 100-percent success. But I can 
guarantee you, we're going to give it our best shot to make sure that 
we're able to achieve local objectives and, therefore, realize a 
national goal, and that is moving as many people as we can, as 
compassionately as we can, from welfare to work, helping people help 
themselves.
    And finally, any part of a welfare authorization must understand the 
power of faith-based organizations and charitable organizations in our 
society. I have asked for legislation that will encourage charitable 
giving and, at the same time, allow faith-based organizations to access 
Federal dollars without discrimination, without causing the faith-based 
organization to abandon faith. You see, here's what I believe: I believe 
there are neighborhood healers and helpers all across America who want 
to love their neighbor just like they love themselves and ought to be 
encouraged rather than thwarted.

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    I know you've got a strong faith-based initiative here in 
Mecklenburg County. I want to applaud you for that. It makes sense to 
say to church and synagogue and mosque that if you want to help a 
neighbor in need, we encourage you to do so. It makes sense to recognize 
that sometimes a drug addict or an alcohol--person hooked on alcohol 
needs a change of heart in order to change behavior. And that doesn't 
happen through Government bureaucracies. It happens as a result of 
people of faith interfacing with neighbors in need.
    And so I'm calling on Congress, the Senate--and I talked to Senator 
Daschle about this this morning, and he wrote a very positive editorial 
about the need for faith-based programs in our society. I hope they get 
this legislation passed and to my desk. It is essential that we rally 
the armies of compassion all across the country.
    Yesterday in Washington, DC, I met with a guy hooked on crack 
cocaine. He found the Lord. He changed his life. He's married. He was a 
lousy dad; he's now a good dad, upholding his obligations. He feels so 
much better about himself. And as importantly, he's a part of a program 
that exists in inner-city Washington, DC, trying to find the next crack 
cocaine addict, to help that person help themselves.
    The fabric--I envision a fabric in our Nation of healers and helpers 
and faith-based, compassionate people, all reaching out to a neighbor in 
need. People ask me all the time, ``What can I do in the fight against 
terror?'' And the answer is: Do something good.
    You see, it's the gathering--what I like to call the gathering 
momentum of millions of acts of kindness on a daily basis that stands 
strong against the evil which attacked our country. It is the ability 
for our Nation to show its compassionate side through acts and deeds of 
kindness and the willingness of somebody to put their arm around a child 
as a mentor and say, ``I love you.'' Or just walking into a neighbor's 
house, an elderly neighbor's house, a shut-in, and saying, ``I care 
about you. What can I do to help you today?''
    This is the strength of the country. This is--we're not trying to 
reinvent something. We're tapping into the great soul of America. The 
spirit of our country is one based upon neighborhoods, people helping 
each other, communities all bound up with one thing in mind, how to make 
people's lives better.
    You know, they hit us; they attacked us; they took life; but they 
have not been able to dent the spirit of America. We are strong. We are 
compassionate. We're a loving nation. And as a result, I see a future 
that is so hopeful and so bright for every citizen who's fortunate 
enough to call themselves an American.
    Thank you for letting me come. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 11:25 a.m. at the Chamber of Commerce. In 
his remarks, he referred to Mayor Patrick McCrory of Charlotte; Parks 
Helms, chairman, Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners; Rodney 
Carroll, president and chief executive officer, Welfare to Work 
Partnership; Carroll Gray, president, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce; and 
Chairman Hamid Karzai of the Afghan Interim Authority. The President 
also referred to Title I of the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 
(Public Law No. 103-382), which amended Title I of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (Public Law No. 89-10), and TANF, the 
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.