[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 17 (Monday, April 29, 2002)]
[Pages 680-683]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Dakota Ethanol Plant in Wentworth, South Dakota

April 24, 2002

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Ron, I want to thank you very much. 
I thought Washington was where it got a little windy. [Laughter] You've 
got to remember, I was raised in west Texas. I'm kind of used to the 
wind. It reminds me of home.
    I want to thank you all for a warm welcome. Thank you for being so 
gracious. Ron, thank you very much for hosting us here. I appreciate the 
briefing I had and the chance to meet with some of your fellow citizens 
in South Dakota, a chance to talk about ag policy. And I want to thank 
all those for coming as well.
    I appreciate so very much Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman 
traveling with me today. I'm proud of the job Ann is doing. She's a 
great leader for the Ag Department. She understands farmers, understands 
farming, and she's doing America a fine job.
    I want to thank your Governor for coming. Janklow and I have been 
friends for a long time. I was a Governor of Texas, he was a Governor of 
South Dakota; and he kept telling me what to do all the time when I was 
around him. [Laughter] But I appreciate you being here, Governor. Thank 
you very much.
    We share something in common; we both married above our heads. 
[Laughter] I'm sorry my wife isn't with me. I had the honor of saying 
hello to the first lady of South Dakota at the steps of Air Force One. I 
bring up Laura because I can't tell you how proud I am of her. She is--
you know, when I married her, she was a public school librarian who 
really didn't like politics and didn't care for politicians, either, I 
might add. [Laughter] And she has been such a calm and steady influence 
for the country, and she's come a long way from a public school 
librarian to a great First Lady. I'm real proud of her.
    I want to appreciate the Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, for 
being here today. Tom, I'm honored you'd come. And Tom and I have spent 
some quality time together. I invite him to the Oval Office for 
breakfast--he doesn't eat much, I want you to know, which is good for my 
wallet. [Laughter] But I appreciate working with him. And I also 
appreciate Senator Tim Johnson being here as well. Thank you, Tim, for 
coming. As well, we're honored to have the only Congressman from the 
State of South Dakota, John Thune--thank you for being here, John.
    I want to spend some time talking about agriculture and the 
importance of agriculture for our country, but before I do, I want to 
tell you about the war. I want you to know that we're fighting against 
killers, coldblooded murderers, and they still want to hurt us. Bill 
Janklow and I were talking coming in about what he has done to help 
secure the homeland here in South Dakota. And for that, I am grateful, 
and you need to be. He takes it seriously. He is on top of the situation 
here in South Dakota.
    And I believe that around the country we're making great progress 
toward making our homeland more secure. We've got to do a better job of 
understanding who's coming into our country and why they're coming in, 
and, if they're going out, when they're supposed to be going out. We've 
got a good amount of money in the budget, as Senator Daschle can tell 
you, to make sure that our first-responders are ready, should something 
happen. We've got a good initiative on bioterrorism that we're working 
on, to make sure the homeland is secure.
    But the best way to secure the homeland is to chase these murderers 
down, one by one, and bring them to justice. And that's exactly what 
America is going to do. The reason I tell you that is it's important for 
you to know that this war to secure our homeland and to protect freedom 
is not going to end anytime soon. I don't have a calendar on my desk 
that says, by such and such a date we're going to quit. That's not how I 
think, much to the chagrin of the enemy. You see, I don't know what they 
were thinking when they attacked America. They must have thought we were 
so materialistic, so self-centered, so weak that all we were going to do 
was to file a lawsuit. They found out we don't file lawsuits when it 
comes to defending freedom; we send our United States military.
    And I've submitted a budget to the United States Congress that sets 
our defense as the number one priority. It's a big increase, no question 
about it. But my attitude is we're in it for the long haul, and we must 
send

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that signal not only to the enemy but to our coalition partners. And 
secondly, anytime we commit a U.S. citizen who wears our uniform to 
combat, or in harm's way, they must have the best equipment, the best 
training, the best pay possible. The price of freedom's high, but as far 
as I'm concerned, it's not too high, and we're going to pay it.
    And there's no cave deep enough for them to hide. We're going to get 
them one by one, because this Nation is patient and we're plenty tough 
when it comes to defending our country.
    But it's also important to know that we're a compassionate nation as 
well. I remind our citizens, particularly the young, that we don't seek 
revenge; we seek justice. And when we went into Afghanistan to uphold 
the doctrine that said, if you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty 
as the ones that came to kill America, and routed out the Taliban, we 
didn't go in there as conquerors; we went in as liberators. We freed 
people from the clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes ever. And 
now, thanks to the United States of America and our coalition partners, 
young girls go to school in Afghanistan.
    We've got a lot of work to do on the war front. We've got a lot of 
work to do on making sure that Afghanistan is a viable nation which can 
defend herself and is a good neighbor in an important part of the world.
    And so you just need to know that I am proud of America; I'm proud 
of the fact that we're unified. This isn't a Republican war; this isn't 
a Democrat war; this is an American war. And our country is unified, and 
we are strong, and we are resolved. And that makes this President and I 
know it makes the Members of the Congress feel really good.
    And we have work to do at home as well. The enemy, when they hit us, 
did affect our economy. And there's no question about that. And my 
attitude is, anybody who wants to work who can't find work--we've got a 
problem in the economy. And there was a lot of people who wanted to work 
who couldn't find work.
    What I thought was necessary was to cut the taxes on the people who 
work. See, my attitude is if you get people more money, they increase 
demands for good and services. When they increase demand for goods and 
services, somebody produces the goods and services. And when somebody 
produces the good and services, somebody's going to have a job to 
produce the goods and services. For the good of the jobs in America, 
cutting taxes and passing an economic--and signing an economic stimulus 
bill was good. It was good for the country.
    And part of the tax relief package was the repeal of the death tax. 
The death tax is particularly tough on South Dakota and Texas farmers or 
anybody who farms or ranches. It's a tax that keeps taxing somebody's 
assets over and over again. You know, it's this--you get taxed by the 
income tax; you die; you keep paying taxes even after you're dead. It's 
not a fair tax, and we got rid of it.
    Except for, there's a quirk in the rules in the United States Senate 
that means that, after 10 years, it's conceivable that the death tax 
doesn't go away. The House made the repeal of the death tax permanent. I 
saw that Senator Daschle is going to bring that to a vote on the floor 
of the Senate, for which I am grateful. It is time to get rid of the 
death tax forever.
    American agriculture is incredibly important for our economic 
vitality. I--when I was the Governor of Texas, I had the honor of being 
the Governor of the second largest farm State in the Union. I'm heading 
to Crawford after tonight. It's not a very big town; almost everybody 
there is in agriculture business.
    Like you all, I like to--I used to like to go down and sit around 
the coffee shop. They don't let me go down to the coffee shop anymore. 
[Laughter] But I think I got a pretty good handle on the importance of 
agriculture for the future of this country, and one of the most 
important ways to make sure the agriculture economy is strong is to 
promote value-added processing.
    I said when I was running for President, I supported ethanol, and I 
meant it. I support it now, because not only do I know it's important 
for the ag sector of our economy, it's an important part of making sure 
we become less reliant on foreign sources of energy. I appreciate 
Senator Daschle working on the RFS standard.
    And I appreciate John Thune working on the bio-energy rebate 
program, to make sure

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that we help increase, on the one hand, the demand for ethanol and, on 
the other hand, the supply of ethanol. It's good public policy for 
America. It's good for our air; it's good for our economy; and it's good 
for our national security.
    Thank goodness we're self-sufficient in food. But we're not so self-
sufficient in energy. And pretty soon they're going to get an energy 
bill to my desk, and I look forward to signing it. On the one hand, it's 
going to encourage more conservation. On the other hand, hopefully it 
will spur not only the development of renewables but more oil and gas at 
home, and the two are not mutually exclusive. The less reliant we are on 
foreign sources of crude oil, the better off we are in America.
    I mentioned we're self-sufficient in food, and that's good. And we 
generally produce more than we need here at home. And if that's the 
case, it seems like we ought to figure out how to sell more of it 
overseas. The more markets that are open for U.S. farmers and ranchers, 
the better off our economy will be.
    It is important that this Nation embrace free and fair trade. It is 
important that we understand that when we're good at something--and 
we're the best farmers and ranchers in the world--we ought to work to 
open up markets to sell our products all across the world.
    And I will tell you the days are over with, with American ag being 
kind of shunted aside when it comes to international trade agreements. 
We need to keep American ag in the forefront of trade agreements. It 
ought to be the cornerstone of international trade policy. And that's 
been my record thus far as the President, and it will be my record so 
long as I am the President.
    I understand that the Senate is getting to take up a trade bill, for 
which I'm grateful. I look forward to getting that bill to my desk. It's 
important to get it passed and to get it moving. And it's important to 
get a farm bill to my desk as well. We need good farm legislation. 
It's--the farm bill needs to get done quickly so that the farmers who 
are out there fixing to plant know what the rules of the game is. And we 
can do it. We need to put aside all the posturing, all the noise, and 
for the good of American agriculture, get a trade bill to my desk and 
get a farm bill to my desk.
    I want you to know that this great country is going to make the 
right decisions when it comes to peace, is going to make great decisions 
when it comes to how to bolster our economy and make sure we understand 
that a strong ag sector is good for America, good for everybody in 
America. But this country also is going to stand squarely in the face of 
evil, and here's how: We're going to love our neighbor like we'd like to 
be loved ourself and show the world that good overcomes evil every 
single time.
    We can not only boast of a strong military and hopefully a vibrant 
economy all across the country, but we can do small acts of kindness 
that, in their aggregate, in their total, defines the true nature of 
America. You know, when you go to your Sunday school or your synagogue 
or mosque and vow to help somebody in need, you're really helping define 
the face of America. When you mentor a child who seems lost or hopeless, 
you're helping to define America. When you teach in a classroom, when 
you love your children and you tell your children you love them every 
day, that's part of making sure that America is as compassionate as can 
be.
    No, the enemy hit us, but out of this evil is going to come some 
incredible good. Out of this evil is going to come a nation that will be 
stronger, more resolved, tougher, but also more loving.
    I believe that the country is on the verge of changing the culture 
which for years has said, ``If it feels good, just go ahead and do it,'' 
and, ``If you've got a problem, blame somebody else,'' to a day in which 
each of us understand we're responsible for the decisions we make in 
life, that we're responsible for something greater than ourselves.
    That came home to me on Flight 93: When Americans were on an 
airplane, they got the word that they were--the enemy was going to use 
the airplane as a weapon. They got on cell phones and told their loved 
ones goodbye; they said a prayer; they drove the plane into the ground 
to save somebody else.
    It's the America that I know, and it's the America that I love that 
was represented in

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that act, and that happens every day. It happens every day here in South 
Dakota. It happens every day in States and communities across the 
country. That willingness to serve something greater than yourself is 
such a wonderful part of the American character.
    And my call to you is, if you want to fight evil, do some good; love 
a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself. It's happening all 
across America--because, folks, I happen to be the President of the 
greatest nation on the face of the Earth because of our people.
    God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 2:32 p.m. in a storage warehouse at the 
plant. In his remarks, he referred to Ron Alverson, president, board of 
directors, Lake Area Corn Processors, the plant's ownership cooperative; 
and Gov. William J. Janklow of South Dakota and his wife, Mary Dean 
Janklow. The President also referred to RFS, the proposed Renewable 
Fuels Standard to specify a percentage of the Nation's fuel supply to 
come from renewable domestic fuels like ethanol and biodiesel.