[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 26 (Monday, July 1, 2002)]
[Pages 1073-1077]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Republican Party of Florida Majority Dinner in
Orlando, Florida

June 21, 2002

    Gosh, thanks for that warm welcome. It's an honor to be back here in 
the great State of Florida. I want to--I appreciate all of you who have 
come tonight. I'm here to help support the Republican Party of this 
State and make sure your unbelievably great Governor gets reelected.
    It was a real treat for me to be able to see mi cunada, my sister-
in-law, Columba. Jeb and I both married above ourselves. [Laughter] I 
know you're proud of the job that Columba's doing as the first lady of 
Florida. And I'm really proud of the job Laura's doing as the First Lady 
of America.
    I'm pleased to report that our mother is still telling both of us 
what to do. [Laughter] And we're both listening--most of the time. But 
it's great to be here with my family. As you know, we love our--we've 
got a great family; we love each other a lot. And anything I can do to 
help Jeb stay in the Governor's office I'll do, even if that means 
keeping Brogan as the Lieutenant Governor. [Laughter] I appreciate you, 
Frank. Frank Brogan is a very good man, and you're doing a great job, 
Frank. I appreciate you.
    I want to thank an Orlando product who traveled with me today for 
his service to the country. Mel Martinez is doing a great job in my 
Cabinet. I want to thank former Senator Connie Mack for staying involved 
with the Republican Party and for helping a lot.
    I appreciate so very much Congressman Ric Keller, who's doing a fine 
job in the United States Congress. Ric, thank you very much. Mike 
Bilirakis is here, and Mike is a great Congressman from up the coast. I 
appreciate you being here, Mike. They tell me Congressmen Miller and 
Foley and Weldon may be here. If you're not here, I can understand--I'm 
going to give a long speech. [Laughter] If you are here, thank you for 
your service to the State of Florida and to the country. And finally, 
they've been a little lax on the immigration laws here in Florida; you 
let a man from Georgia come in. He's a great Congressman from south 
Georgia, Charlie Norwood--Congressman Norwood.
    I appreciate members of the elected--who have been elected statewide 
here in Florida: Charlie Bronson, Charlie Crist, and Tom Gallagher. I'm 
honored you all are here. I want to thank the chairman of the Republican 
Party of Florida, Al Cardenas, for his hard work and noble efforts for 
this party. And I want to thank Al Hoffman and Al Austin for their loyal 
friendship and longtime support for both Jeb and me. I want to thank you 
for your hard work. I want to thank the mayor of this fine city, and the 
mayor of Sarasota as well for coming--both Carolyn Mason and Glenda 
Hood. Thank you all for being here.
    I appreciate so very much members of the Florida legislature, 
starting with the speaker, Tom Feeney, and Senate Leader John McKay. 
Thank you both for being here, and all of you for coming.
    But most of all, I want to thank you all for supporting a great 
cause and a great slate of candidates. I want to thank those of you who 
have contributed your money, and I want to thank those of you who 
contribute your time. We understand--at least Jeb and I understand--how 
important it is to have a viable, vibrant grassroots organization. And 
for those of you who spent hours dialing phones and putting up signs and 
passing out pamphlets, thanks for your hard work. Get a little rest over 
the next couple of weeks--[laughter]--and get ready. We need you this 
fall.
    My attitude is, when you find a man who brings integrity to office, 
you've got to send him back into that office. And that's Jeb Bush. He's 
a man with strong principles. He fights for what he believes in. He sets 
high

[[Page 1074]]

standards. The thing I'm most proud about Jeb, he is the Governor of 
everybody in the State of Florida. His vision--he doesn't think about 
keeping people out or doesn't think about keeping special people in. 
When Jeb thinks and acts, he thinks about how best to improve the lives 
of everybody.
    And I want the citizens of Florida to stay focused on his education 
agenda and his education vision. Jeb Bush understands and believes that 
every child in the State of Florida can learn. He knows that if you set 
low standards, certain children aren't going to learn. He believes that 
he's got to set high standards to make sure that every child in this 
great State learns how to read and write and add and subtract.
    He's a man of enormous principle who believes in holding people 
accountable. He understands that in order to make sure every child 
learns, you must measure. You see, there used to be a system in Florida 
that said--it must have said certain kids can't learn, so the easy way 
out is just to move them through. And guess who got moved through--
inner-city African American kids. Let's just quit on them and move them 
through and hope nobody notices.
    How about children whose parents don't speak English as a first 
language? They're easy to quit on. But under the leadership of Governor 
Jeb Bush, because he set high standards and holds people accountable for 
results, his program and his vision will do more to make sure that every 
child--I mean every single child in this great State--is going to get a 
good education, and no child will be left behind. I'm proud of you, 
brother.
    It hasn't been easy times for Governors around the country when it 
comes to managing the budget. But fortunately, you've got a Governor who 
didn't run up the baselines of your budget when it seemed like times 
were plenty. You've got a fiscally sound Governor, somebody who 
understands that the people's money is their money, not the Government's 
money, somebody who's done a fabulous job on behalf of the taxpayers of 
the people of Florida.
    I've enjoyed very much working with Jeb on a lot of key issues, and 
I know for the State of Florida there is no more key issue than making 
sure that the coastline of Florida didn't have a lot of oil and gas 
drilling. As a matter of fact, under our vision, it's not going to have 
any. And so we worked together on Destin Dome--we worked together on 
Destin Dome and the Collier property in the Everglades. And thanks to 
the leadership of this Governor, thanks to the leadership of Jeb Bush--
he has been a strong environmental steward for the people of the State 
of Florida.
    This guy is doing a great job for the people. And I'm confident with 
your help, you're going to send him back up to Tallahassee.
    We've got work to do in Florida, and we've got work to do in 
Washington. And I want to share some thoughts about how I think things 
are going. First, I know there's a lot of talk about statistics in 
Washington, DC. They're always quoting this person's statistic or this 
smart person's statistic. Here's my attitude: If somebody wants to work 
and can't find a job, we've got a problem. If somebody's looking for 
work and can't find that job, all of us involved in public policy must 
do everything we can to expand the job base. The role of Government is 
not to create wealth. The role of Government is to create an environment 
in which the entrepreneur can flourish, in which the small-business 
owner has a chance to realize his or her dreams.
    And that's why I insisted last year that the United States Congress 
join me in cutting the taxes on the working people all around America. I 
readily concede some people in Washington read a different economic 
textbook than I have. They believe that when the economy slows down, 
you've got to keep more of the money in Washington. I believe that if 
you let people have their own money, they'll spend it. And they'll 
demand a good and service, and when they demand a good or a service, 
somebody is going to produce that good and service. And when somebody 
produces that good and service, somebody is more likely to have a job. 
It is essential in Washington and in Tallahassee that you have leaders 
understand the entrepreneurial potential of our country and of the State 
of Florida.
    So whether it be on tax policy or terrorism insurance--and by the 
way, I want to thank the Senate and the House for passing me

[[Page 1075]]

a terror insurance bill, so that we can make sure large-scale 
construction projects can go forward in the State of Florida. But 
they've got to make sure they send me a bill that doesn't enrich 
plaintiffs' attorneys but instead encourages workers to be able to find 
work.
    And you're going to see, there's going to be some budget struggles 
in Washington, DC. The temptation is to spend, and I understand that. 
But they've given the President the veto for a reason. And one of the 
reasons is to make sure that there is fiscal discipline in Washington, 
DC. And I intend to use the veto to make sure we do not overspend in our 
nation's capital. We're making progress on the economic security front. 
But I'm telling you, we've got a lot more to do, and we will. We will.
    And we're making progress on the defense of our homeland as well. As 
you probably have heard, I have asked Congress to help me in 
streamlining and making more effective the ability for all of us 
involved with the homeland security to do our jobs. I readily concede 
that some are probably asking the question, ``Why would he try to create 
more Government?'' After all, I didn't run and say, ``Vote for me, I 
promise to create bigger Government.'' The reason why I have asked 
Congress to join me is because I want to take the over 100 agencies 
involved with homeland defense and bring them under one agency, so that 
we can be more effective, so that we can be more accountable and doing 
the most important job we have to do, which is to keep the enemy from 
hurting innocent Americans.
    I say, ``Keep the enemy from hurting innocent Americans,'' because 
that's exactly what they want to do. We're dealing with coldblooded 
killers, and that's all they are. These are people who hijack a great 
religion and kill in the name of that religion. These are people who 
send youngsters to their death, and they hide in caves. And so I just 
want you to know that my main focus, and the main focus of a lot of 
hard-working people, is to do everything we can to protect America. 
We're chasing down every single lead--[applause]--we're chasing down 
every single lead. If there is a hint that somebody might try to do 
something to America, we're on them. We are.
    I know there's been a lot of consternation in Washington--and 
probably in your newspapers here--about the FBI and the CIA. There's no 
question that the FBI needed to change its attitude after September the 
11th. After all, prior to September the 11th, the main function of the 
FBI was to run criminals down here in America and arrest them and bring 
them to justice, and that's still an important function. But now that 
we've realized that we've got a war on our hands, an enemy that wants to 
hurt us, the FBI's primary mission is now to prevent an attack.
    And they're talking better than ever. With intelligence-gathering 
networks, we're getting pretty good at it, and we're communicating 
better. My point to you is that the defense of the homeland, although 
never perfect, is improving every single day thanks to a lot of hard-
working Americans.
    But the best way to secure the homeland, the best way to make sure 
that I do my job, is to hunt the killers down one by one and bring them 
to justice. And that is precisely what America is going to do.
    I've submitted a significant increase in the defense spending of the 
United States. It's the largest increase since Ronald Reagan was the 
President of our country. I did so for two main reasons. One, any time 
any one of our troops goes into the battle or into harm's way, that 
person deserves the absolute best equipment, the best pay, the best 
training possible. And the second reason is it sends a clear signal to 
our country, the coalition we have put together, and the enemy that the 
United States, when it comes to defending our freedom, will take however 
long it takes, that this is a long struggle, this is going to be a 
struggle of--it's going to last a long time.
    And we're making progress, we really are. Some of it's very evident; 
we routed out this barbaric regime called the Taliban. We sent our 
incredibly brave troops into Afghanistan, and in pretty short order we 
liberated a country. We freed people from the clutches of people who 
wouldn't even let girls go to school, and now they do, thanks to the 
United States of America.

[[Page 1076]]

    But a lot of what's happening you won't see. That's the nature of 
the new war. We're kind of chasing down shadowy networks, people that 
try to blend into big, crowded cities, or they hide in, as I said, 
caves. But you just need to know we're after them. We've got them on the 
run. And we're going to keep them on the run. And we're going to 
continue making sure we send a clear message: Either you're with us, or 
you're with the enemy.
    We spend a lot of time talking to our friends and allies and 
bolstering our coalition. Today one of our coalition members, President 
Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines, did the world a great service. There 
was a group of killers named Abu Sayyaf in her country. They kidnapped; 
they killed. And today their leader met his Maker, thanks to one of our 
coalition partners.
    We've hauled in, one way or the other, 2,400--make it 2,401--people 
that have been a part of this shadowy army. But there's more to do. 
There's more to do. And you can bet the United States of America, so 
long as I'm the President, is going to do what needs to be done, 
because, after all, we defend our freedom. And the decisions we make 
today and our steadfast resolve will help our children to live in a free 
world. And there's some tough, tough tasks ahead, no question about it. 
There will be some tough battles.
    There's a threat that faces our country, which I take very 
seriously, and that is the capacity of some of the world's worst regimes 
to develop and harbor weapons of mass destruction. I'm a patient man. 
The United States has got a lot of tools at our disposal. And we'll use 
every tool at our disposal to make sure that the axis of evil doesn't 
hold us hostage, doesn't hold our friends hostage, and does not hurt the 
freedoms that we love so dearly.
    I believe that out of the evil done to America will come some good. 
I believe that this country is so strong and so powerful and so good and 
decent that out of the evil done on September the 11th can come some 
important, lasting contributions to the world, starting with peace.
    You know, Laura always--not always, sometimes--gets on me for my 
rhetoric. [Laughter] And if your children question, you know, why is the 
President talking this way or the other way? I ask you to look them in 
the eye and say, because he loves peace, because he believes that the 
United States has been called into action; that history has given us a 
chance to seize the moment to use our position in the world to make the 
world more peaceful, peaceful in America, peaceful in parts of the world 
where people cannot possibly dream of peace right now, peace in South 
Asia, peace in the Middle East. So long as I'm the President, I will 
drive public policy, foreign policy to achieving peace.
    And at home, and at home, I believe that out of the evil is coming 
incredible good. People say, ``What can I do to help?'' You can love 
your neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. If you want to fight 
evil, do some good. You see, it's the million acts of kindness and 
decency that take place every day in America that will help us fight off 
evil.
    As a result of people loving their neighbor, mentoring a child, 
helping a shut-in, our culture's changing in America. I gave a speech at 
Ohio State University a week ago today, and I was pleased to see that 70 
percent of all the graduating class had at one time or another done some 
volunteer work. It's a great sign to realize that our young have heard 
the call that life is more than just profit and loss, that life of 
service is an important part of being not a spectator but a citizen of 
the United States of America.
    The most compelling story, of course, in my judgment, after 9/11 or 
during 9/11 was Flight 93, when brave souls heard that their airplane 
was a weapon. They called their loved ones. They said a prayer, and they 
took the airplane in the ground in the ultimate gesture of serving 
something greater than yourself. I believe that lesson has reverberated 
throughout our society. I believe millions of our fellow citizens now 
realize that in order to be a full-fledged American, it means you've got 
to help somebody in need.
    There are pockets of despair and hopelessness in America that can be 
solved by love and compassion, by works of faith. And I believe that out 
of the evil, more and more Americans, as a result of our fellow 
Americans showing compassion and decency, will

[[Page 1077]]

realize the American Dream extends to every neighborhood in this great 
land.
    I believe that Americans understand that the culture of if it feels 
good, do it, and you got a problem, blame somebody else, is a culture 
that must fade off into the sunset. It's being replaced by a culture of 
personal responsibility. Each of us are responsible for loving our 
children. If you happen to be a mom or a dad, your most important job is 
to love your children with all your heart and all your soul.
    In order to be a good neighbor, you must love your neighbor. If 
you're running a business, a public company in America, you have the 
responsibility to have clean balance sheets, to be--fully disclose your 
assets and your liabilities and treat your shareholders and employees 
with the respect they deserve.
    No, out of the evil done to America has come a new culture, a new 
sense of responsibility. The enemy thought they were hurting America, 
and they killed too many lives, no question about it. But they didn't 
realize who they were dealing with. They were dealing with the greatest 
Nation, the most decent Nation, the most compassionate Nation on the 
face of this Earth. And it is my high honor to be the President of such 
a great place.
    Thank you for coming. God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 6:44 p.m. in the Tuscan Ballroom at the 
Universal Studios Portofino Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. 
Jeb Bush of Florida, and his wife, Columba; Charles Bronson, Florida 
commissioner of agriculture; Charlie Crist, Florida education 
commissioner; Thomas Gallagher, Florida State treasurer, insurance 
commissioner, and fire marshal; Al Hoffman, Jr., national finance 
chairman, Republican National Committee; Al Austin, finance chairman, 
Republican Party of Florida; Mayor Carolyn Mason of Sarasota, FL; Mayor 
Glenda Hood of Orlando; Abu Sabaya, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist 
group who was killed June 21 by Philippine military forces; and 
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines. This item was not 
received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.