[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 29 (Monday, July 22, 2002)]
[Pages 1202-1208]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Luncheon for Gubernatorial Candidate Bob Riley in 
Birmingham

July 15, 2002

    Thank you all very much. Please be seated. It's a long speech. 
[Laughter] Thanks so much for coming.
    I don't know whether you know this or not, but in 1972, I helped 
organize Red Blount's campaign for the United States Senate right here 
in the State of Alabama. Because of me and Jimmy Allison, he managed to 
get 32 percent of the vote. [Laughter] But I learned then and there how 
great the people are of the State of Alabama. I've got fond affection of 
those times. I count many of you as my friends, and I want to thank you 
for coming today to help the next Governor of the State of Alabama, Bob 
Riley.
    There is no doubt in my mind he is going to win, and I want to thank 
you all for helping. He's going to win because he's got a fantastic 
grassroots organization. Many of the grassroots activists are here 
today. I want to thank you for what you're fixing to do, which is to 
start dialing phones and putting up signs and knocking on doors and 
going to coffee shops and going to your churches and synagogues to 
remind people that with Bob Riley you've got a good, honest politician 
who's going to bring integrity to Montgomery, Alabama, and he's going to 
reform the State on behalf of all the people of this great State.
    He's also going to win because he married well. [Laughter] And I 
appreciate Patsy Riley and the Riley family for standing by Bob as

[[Page 1203]]

he makes this very important run for the governorship. Patsy, thank you 
for being here. God bless you all.
    And I know something about marrying well. I did. I'm really proud of 
Laura. She was a public school librarian when she married me. She didn't 
care for politics or politicians. Here she is, First Lady of the United 
States, and doing a fantastic job.
    I want to also urge you all, as you're turning out to vote for Bob, 
to make sure you turn out to vote for Jeff Sessions, who is a fantastic 
United States Senator. I appreciate working with Jeff, and I appreciate 
working with Richard Shelby as well, two great United States Senators 
who have got fan--[applause]. They're always talking about Alabama when 
I'm with them, reminding me of Alabama, and that's what you want your 
Senators to do. But they've also got the capacity to think about the 
country as well. I'm proud of your Senators, and I hope you are as well. 
And Jeff needs your help. You need to take nothing for granted in this 
election year. It's important for the good of the country and for the 
good of your State that Jeff Sessions be sent back to the United States 
Senate for another term.
    I want to thank Members of the United States House of 
Representatives from the State of Alabama who are here with us today, 
starting with a man we're going to miss, out of Mobile, Alabama, Sonny 
Callahan. Where are you? There he is, Sonny. Sonny's a good one. Sonny 
has served the State and the country with great distinction. He 
announced his retirement earlier on this year. It's just too darn bad he 
decided to go fishing all the time, but it's a well-deserved rest, and 
he's a fine man. I also appreciate so very much Terry Everett from 
Montgomery for coming today. Terry, I appreciate you being here, as well 
as Robert Aderholt and Spencer Bachus. Thank you all for coming.
    I know a lot of members of the statehouse are here, folks who Bob 
Riley is going to be working with when he becomes the Governor. I know 
the Lieutenant Governor, Steve Windom, is here, as is the attorney 
general, Bill Pryor. And I want to thank you both for coming as well. I 
want to thank Jim Bennett, the Alabama secretary of state, and all the 
members of the statehouse, the senators and house of representatives who 
are here to support your next Governor.
    It's good that you're here, as people are beginning to realize he's 
going to win, you're beginning to realize he's going to win. So it's 
kind of good to get in good with the Governor early. [Laughter] At 
least, that's how we did it in Texas, and I suspect Alabama is that way, 
too. The Governor is going to remember who was with him early and who 
kind of got on the late train. But the good news, he's going to be the 
Governor of everybody when he wins. He's not going to play this business 
of pitting one group of people against the other.
    We've got some fine candidates running to replace Sonny Callahan and 
Bob Riley. We've got Jo Bonner from the Alabama First Congressional 
District. Jo, are you here? Thank you. There he is. I appreciate you, 
Jo. And Mike Rogers from Alabama Three is here as well. Thank you, Mike.
    But I'm here to help this good man get elected to the governorship. 
It's a job I understand. I was a--great honor to be the Governor of my 
State. It's a fantastic opportunity to make a difference in the lives of 
a lot of people, particularly if you've got a Governor like Bob Riley, 
who's got a positive vision for everybody, a vision that says, the most 
important job for the Governor is to make sure that every child gets a 
good education.
    I know his passion about education, because he helped me get the 
education bill through the House of Representatives. And I'd like to 
outline the principles of that bill so that the people of Alabama 
understand what he will do when given the chance to be the Governor. The 
first principle, it says that we believe--Riley and I believe, and I 
hope you believe with us--that every child can learn. We set the highest 
of high standards. We understand that in order to get the best for every 
child, you must have high expectations.
    See, we understand, if you have low expectations, you get low 
results. There are some people in our society who don't believe every 
child can learn, and therefore they're willing to set low standards. 
That's opposite what we think. We believe every child can learn, and we 
expect every child to learn.

[[Page 1204]]

    And therefore, the bill I signed said in return for Federal money--
in return for a good size budget increase, I might add, for Title I 
students--we expect you to teach them how to read and write and add and 
subtract. You see, we're tired of the days when children were just 
shuffled through the system, the days when expectations were so low that 
it seemed okay to pass those through who weren't supposed to be able to 
learn. For the good of the country, for the good of the State of 
Alabama, those days of passing children through without teaching them to 
read and write and add and subtract must end and will end.
    We believe in accountability, because we want to know. We understand 
you can't change a system unless you measure it. We understand you can't 
correct a problem unless you measure it. We understand that if you want 
every child to learn to read and write and add and subtract, we must 
determine if every child can read and write and add and subtract early 
in their school career.
    Now, I've heard every excuse in the world, you know, ``You shouldn't 
test. It's racist to test.'' My fellow Americans, it's racist not to 
test. It's racist not to hold people accountable for the children in the 
State of Alabama.
    And finally, Bob and I share a deep conviction that if you want to 
have excellence for every child, you must trust the local folks to chart 
the path to excellence. One size doesn't fit all across America. One 
size doesn't fit all across the State of Alabama. We must empower people 
at the local level to meet the high standards by holding them in 
account, but trusting first and foremost the fact that the parents and 
the people closest to the children are those who are more likely to 
design a program that will meet our national goals, which is every child 
learning and not one single child left behind.
    I'm confident in telling you that the vision of Bob Riley as 
Governor of the State of Alabama--the education vision--is the right 
vision for the future of this important State, because it is part of 
attracting jobs to your State. When the word gets out that the Riley 
reforms are taking hold and children aren't being left behind, there's 
going to be a lot of people coming, ``I want to work here in Alabama. I 
want to bring my business in Alabama''--assuming, of course, that you 
make sure that the junk lawsuits that plague this State and other States 
don't continue to reign supreme.
    And it's good you're about to put a tort reformer in the Governor's 
mansion in the State of Alabama. It is necessary. Look, we want our 
people to have access to the courts, no question about it. If you've got 
a legitimate claim, you ought to have your day in court. But it's 
important to remember that the frivolous and junk lawsuits that get 
filed all the time are clogging the ability of people with honest claims 
to get to the courthouses in Alabama and across the country. Tort reform 
is important for the State.
    And I appreciated Bob's strong support on the tax relief package 
which we passed, not only his strong support but the strong support of 
the other Members of Congress and, of course, the two United States 
Senators. We cut taxes right at the right time in our country. This 
economy began to slow down in March of 2000. And we understand that one 
way to encourage economic growth is to let the people keep their own 
money. You see, when you have your own money, you decide, do you want to 
spend it on a good or a service? And when you make that decision, 
somebody has got to produce the good or service. And when they produce 
the good and service, it means somebody is more likely to find work. Tax 
relief was right for America when we did it, and I'm proud to have Bob 
Riley's support.
    And it was more than just reducing rates--which, by the way, will 
stimulate small-business growth here in Alabama. I had the honor of 
meeting some of your fine small-business owners at the University of 
Alabama-Birmingham today. And by the way, that is an impressive campus 
that has got an impressive mission here for Alabama's future.
    And we talked about how to encourage ownership. And Bob understands 
a healthy and whole society in which people from all walks of life have 
the opportunity to own their own business. And I explained to them that 
the tax relief package we passed was good for small business. It was 
good for the capital formation necessary for small businesses to thrive 
because most small businesses are sole proprietorships, most small

[[Page 1205]]

businesses are limited partnerships which pay tax on the individual rate 
schedule. And when you reduce the individual rates, you're reducing the 
taxes on the startups and the small businesses.
    And after all, it's important to understand the role of small 
businesses like Bob does, because 70 percent of the new jobs in America 
are created by small businesses. And so it's going to be good for 
Alabama to have a Governor who understands that the role of Government 
is not to create wealth, but the role of Government is to create an 
environment in which entrepreneurs from all walks of life are able to 
realize their dream, and that's to own their own business.
    We've got work to do in Washington on this, a matter of economic 
security. The heady days of the nineties, the boom days of the nineties, 
it was like we were on a binge where there was no--the horizon was 
forever going up. And we binged, and now we're suffering a hangover. But 
the foundations for economic vitality and growth are very strong, low 
inflation, good monetary policy.
    One of the risks to economic vitality is whether or not Congress 
will overspend. They give the President a veto for a reason, to make 
sure that Congress doesn't overspend. And I expect there to be fiscal 
discipline in Washington this summer and, as importantly, this fall, as 
we run up into an election year. I expect Congress to set as its 
priorities the priorities that I think are important, and that is the 
defense of the United States of America and our military budget.
    We need to be a nation which is willing to be confident and strong 
and open up markets for Alabama farmers and Alabama ranchers and Alabama 
entrepreneurs. Congress needs to give me trade promotion authority. They 
ought to stop talking and start acting in Washington, DC.
    For the good of our economic growth, we need to have a terrorism 
insurance bill which will encourage the creation of construction work 
all around America, and we need a terrorism insurance bill that focuses 
more on working America and less on trial lawyer America.
    The foundations for growth are there. We had an over 6 percent 
growth in the first quarter of this year. Durable good purchasing is up. 
Last month retail sales were up by a percent. The American people need 
to know that we've got the potential to grow and grow strong. But so 
long as anybody is looking for work and can't find work, I think we've 
got a problem, and I'm going to continue to work the problem.
    And part of the problem is the fact that people don't have 
confidence in business leaders. A few--and I emphasize, a few--of 
corporate America's leadership have polluted the well for many. And the 
best thing the United States Government can do is hold them to account, 
because we expect high standards from business America. We expect 
corporate CEOs to understand the responsibility of their jobs: to be 
open and honest with the American people; to be open and honest with the 
shareholders; and to treat their employees with respect.
    So we're going to pass some laws, and I'm confident that the laws 
that are passed out of the Senate and the House will be laws that will 
set the right tone and right standards without jeopardizing innovation 
and enterprise here in America. But I can assure you, when I talk about 
personal responsibility in America, I expect there to be corporate 
responsibility as well. And we will hold those to account who do not 
uphold those high standards in America.
    I'm very optimistic about our economy. I'm optimistic about our 
country too. And we've got some big jobs to do, no question about it. My 
biggest job is to protect the American people from another attack, and I 
know that. I go to the Oval Office every morning--and by the way, 
walking into that office is an unbelievable experience. It's 
unbelievable now that I've been up there for about a year and a half; it 
will be unbelievable for however long I'm there, I can promise you. It's 
unbelievable for me and my dog Spot, I might add. [Laughter] They don't 
let Barney in. It's a new carpet, and Barney's a new dog. [Laughter]
    But every morning I sit there at the H.M.S. Resolute desk. Teddy 
Roosevelt used it; Franklin Roosevelt used it; Kennedy used it; Ronald 
Reagan used it. I open up the threats to the United States of America. 
There's an assessment; it's a summary of what we think we know.

[[Page 1206]]

    You need to know that the enemy we fight is still interested in 
harming our country. I'm sure a lot of young people wonder why. We're a 
kind nation. And you need to know they hate us because we love freedom. 
We love to worship freely. We love to speak our mind. We love a free 
press. We love all the aspects of our freedom. But what they didn't 
understand is that we're willing to defend our freedoms at any cost, 
anyplace, anywhere. [Applause] Thank you all.
    We're making progress here at home. You know, I readily concede I 
didn't run on the ticket, ``Vote for me. I'll try to make Government 
bigger.'' I did say, ``I'll try to make it work better.'' And that's why 
I proposed the Department of Homeland Security. There are over 100 
agencies dealing with homeland security. They're scattered all over 
Washington. It makes it awfully hard to set priority and to hold people 
accountable.
    For the sake of the defense of our Nation, I think it's important 
that the major agencies and many of the minor agencies involved with 
homeland security be organized under one umbrella group, one Cabinet 
officer. It's going to save us money because we'll be able to get rid of 
the duplication of some services. But more importantly, it will help us 
install a new culture, which says that ``No matter what other 
assignments you might have, your most important function, Mr. Agency 
Head and all the people who work for you, is to protect the American 
people, is to understand we're in a new era, that we fight a new war, 
that America is still threatened, and so long as America is threatened, 
we need to work overtime to make sure we protect the American people.'' 
And that's what's going on.
    We're getting pretty good cooperation. I appreciate the bipartisan 
spirit in Washington. There is such a thing sometimes, and that's 
important. It's important to understand my proposal wasn't a Republican 
idea. It wasn't a Democrat idea. It's an American idea, to leave behind 
a legacy so that future Presidents and future Congresses are going to be 
able to deal with the true threats we face as we head into the 21st 
century.
    Part of the problem is, and there is a hurdle I recognize, and that 
is that we're asking some Members of Congress to give up turf. And 
that's okay. I understand that, but I'm going to keep reminding people, 
congressional turf is not nearly as important as American security. And 
therefore, I expect Congress to act.
    We need to know who is coming into our country, why they're coming 
into our country, and whether or not they're leaving our country when 
they say they're going to be leaving our country. We need to have an 
effective strategy at the national, State, and local level to deal with 
the brave police and fire and EMS teams all across our country, so we've 
got a planned response if necessary. We need to work on bioterrorism, 
and we need to make sure we've got a coordinating facility within the 
Homeland Security Department that will take all the bits of intelligence 
that we gather and coordinate it and look at it and assess it and, if 
there is any vulnerabilities in our country, react to it.
    And we're making good progress. You just need to know there are a 
lot of good folks--good, hard-working folks--who are working overtime in 
this phase on the war against terror. And it's part of making sure that 
the President can say, we're doing all we can do to protect the American 
people. We're chasing down any lead. Any time we get a hint, any time we 
get a suggestion that somebody might be planning to do something on 
American soil against Americans or, for that matter, on Americans or on 
our allies elsewhere, we're moving, and we're reacting, and we're 
disrupting. And we're treating these guys for what they are, a bunch of 
coldblooded killers, nothing but a bunch of international crooks.
    And so our strategy is to keep them on the run, get them on the run, 
smoke them out of their holes, deny them access, make clear the doctrine 
that says, ``Either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists,'' 
make it clear to people that we're continually doing--if you feed them, 
if you house them, if you're financing them, you're just as guilty as 
the murderers who struck the United States on September 11th.
    I submitted the largest increase in our defense spending since 
Ronald Reagan was the President, for two reasons: I firmly believe that 
any time the Commander in Chief commits a soldier into harm's way, that 
person deserves the best pay, the best training, the

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best equipment possible; and I know that the signal it sends by the big 
increase shows our friends and allies, as well as the enemy, that the 
United States of America is in this war for the long pull, that there's 
not a moment in time in which we're just going to say, ``Well, fine. 
We've had enough. We quit.'' You know, there's no calendar on our 
collective desks that say, well, by such and such a date, I guess we'll 
just get kind of tired of all this and shut her down. That's not what 
history has called us to do. History has called this Nation to lead the 
world against the true threats of the 21st century, and that's precisely 
what my administration will continue to do.
    This is a different kind of war. We don't have the formations of 
airplanes flying over a territory. We don't have rows of tanks or 
convoys of destroyers moving around the globe. There's no set 
battlefield. This is a war where we're hunting them down one by one.
    The other day I told the Nation, we and our friends and allies have 
hauled in over 2,400 of these terrorist killers, and we're making 
progress. Sometimes you'll read about it, and sometimes you won't. 
Sometimes it will make a splashy headline, but a lot of times you'll 
never hear about the progress we're making. Sometimes you'll see like 
what happened in the Philippines, where as I've made it clear, that if 
we find out there's an Al-Qaida-type network in a country, we will go to 
the leadership and say, ``We want to help you. You get them, or we'll 
get them, or we'll get them together. We just want them got.'' 
[Laughter]
    And the President of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, did just that, 
by knocking off the head of the group that had captured the Burnhams, 
American citizens. These are terrorists and kidnapers and killers, and 
their leader no longer is around, thanks to the leadership of our 
coalition. We're making progress. It's just going to take awhile. But 
that's okay, just so long as the enemy knows that we're going to chase 
them down, just keep them on the run.
    But there's some bigger tasks. You've got to understand, this is 
bigger than just a terrorist network--I mean, bigger than an individual. 
I know there's sometimes a preoccupation about it, is so-and-so alive, 
or is such-and-such dead, you know. This is a struggle for freedom that 
really talks to the need for our country to not only view the current 
threats but future threats, threats such as some of the world's worst 
regimes developing weapons of mass destruction and teaming up with an 
Al-Qaida-type terrorist organization. We cannot and we will not allow 
the United States and our friends and allies to be blackmailed by the 
world's worst leaders with the world's worst weapons. We owe it to our 
children and our grandchildren to eliminate this threat before it 
becomes a reality.
    I believe that out of the evil done to America is going to come 
incredible good, starting with peace. I want you all to assure your 
children and your grandchildren that our Nation is resolved and tough 
and strong because we love peace. We want them to grow up in a peaceful 
world. We not only want them to grow up in a peaceful world; we want 
youngsters all across the globe to be able to grow up in a peaceful 
world.
    I believe that by remaining strong and resolute and united the way 
we are, that we can achieve peace in places like the Middle East and in 
South Asia. I also know that out of the evil done to America is going to 
come some incredible good here at home, because this Nation is such a 
decent and honorable nation. There are thousands of our fellow citizens 
who love their neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves, 
thousands of our citizens who know that they, themselves, can't do 
everything to make our society a better place for all, but they can do 
something.
    People say, ``What can I do to help in the war on terror?'' My 
answer is, love your neighbor. Find a child who cannot read and teach 
him to read. Find a child who might be hopeless and lost and put your 
arm around him and tell him or her you love them. Unleash the great 
power of faith in our society. I strongly believe in faith-based 
institutions, because I know that faith can change hearts for the better 
in America.
    I believe that out of the evil done to America is coming--is 
becoming--we are learning a new sense of what it means to be an 
American. We're learning that it's more than just the bottom line that 
counts, that a complete

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and whole life is one that lends your time and talent and efforts to 
eradicating despair and hopelessness, to make sure the American 
experience is in every single neighborhood.
    I believe we're ushering in a period of personal responsibility, a 
period where people understand that their most important job is to 
love--if you happen to be a mother or dad, is to love your children with 
all your heart and soul--that's your most important job; that you have a 
responsibility, if you're living in Birmingham, to help the community be 
a better place for everybody. If you run the corporate Birmingham, 
you've got a responsibility to your shareholders.
    And it's happening. Perhaps the most vivid example of serving 
something greater than yourself happened on Flight 93. You all may 
remember that--when people were flying across the country, they learned 
their plane was becoming a weapon. They told their loved ones goodbye. 
They said a prayer. One guy said, ``Let's roll.'' And they made the 
ultimate sacrifice. They served something greater than themselves in 
life.
    That's happening all across America. Obviously, that example is the 
most vivid of them all. But out of the evil done to America is coming a 
culture of personal responsibility that allows me to boldly predict that 
we're much more likely now to bring hope where there's no hope, light 
where there's darkness, and to make sure this American experience is 
available for all. It's going to happen, because we are the greatest 
nation on the face of the Earth. And it is my honor to be the President 
of such a nation.
    Thank you for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 11:46 a.m. at the Birmingham Jefferson 
Convention Complex. In his remarks, he referred to Winton M. ``Red'' 
Blount, founder, Blount International, Inc.; Patsy Riley, wife of 
gubernatorial candidate Bob Riley; Jo Bonner, candidate for Alabama's 
First Congressional District; and Mike Rogers, candidate for Alabama's 
Third Congressional District. 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).