    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 32 (Monday, August 12, 2002)]
    [Pages 1302-1306]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at a Reception for Senator Susan Collins in Prout's Neck, Maine

    August 3, 2002

        Thank you all very much. Please be seated. Well, thank you all very
    much for that wonderful welcome. This probably is the first political
    event I've ever traveled to by boat. [Laughter] And I want to thank the
    boat's captain, ``Number 41.'' You're never supposed to drive a boat
    wearing a tie. [Laughter] That's why he doesn't have one on. [Laughter]
        But as you can see, we--the best of our family isn't with us. My
    mother is back there in Kennebunkport, and the great First Lady of the
    United States is in Texas. But if they were here, I can assure you, they
    would say what I'm about to say--that Susan Collins is a great United
    States Senator, and Maine needs to send her back to the Senate.
        Both of us are really proud to be here to campaign on her behalf. We
    want to thank you all very much for helping her. We--I urge you to make
    sure that you continue working for her. For those of you who lick the
    envelopes and make the phone calls and put out the signs and turn out
    the vote, get your uniforms on, because you win in all States, but
    particularly in Maine, through grassroots politics. You win because you
    energize the voters. You win because you remind the people of what a
    fine person you have as a United States Senator. So thank you for what
    you have done on behalf of Susan Collins, and as importantly, thank you
    for what you're going to do to make sure this fine lady returns back to
    the United States Senate.
        And I appreciate her mother and dad driving all this way. It is a
    long way. [Laughter] That's a 5\1/2\ hour drive. But it's wonderful to
    meet the Collins family, all of them. And it says something to me that,
    you know, Mom and Dad and brothers are willing to stand by their sister
    and/or child to do whatever it takes to help out. To me, that's what
    family is all about, and I appreciate so very much the Collins family
    for being here today, and thank you for supporting your little girl.
        Maine's got two fantastic United States Senators. Olympia Snowe is a
    capable lady. Olympia and Susan make a formidable team on behalf of the
    citizens of Maine, and it would be wise for Maine not to break that team
    up. It would be wise for the people of this State to make sure that they
    send somebody back to Washington who understands that to get things
    done, you've got to work with people of both parties, and who solidly
    rejects, like I reject, the same old, tired politics of tearing somebody
    down to get ahead.
        Susan Collins, she's a breath of fresh air in Washington, DC. She's
    kind of an independent thinker, I might add. [Laughter] I don't do
    everything she says. [Laughter] She doesn't do everything I say.
    [Laughter] But she's an ally, and I'm proud to call her friend.
        I want to thank very much Steven Joyce and Kevin Raye for tossing
    their hats in the ring. Steven is running for the Congress, Maine 1; and
    Kevin is running for Congress, Maine 2. Thank you all for coming; we
    hope you win. We look forward to seeing you in Washington--appreciate
    it.
        It's nice to be here with the next Governor of the State of Maine,
    Peter Cianchette. [Laughter] I want to thank the party officials who are
    here. I want to thank Kathy Watson, who's the chairwoman of the
    Republican Party of Maine--Kathy, thank you for your hard work--and Jan
    Martens Staples, who's the national committeewoman.
        I want you to know that in Washington, they've got a lot of pretty
    good talkers, you know, people who can give a fine speech. But somehow,
    behind all the rhetoric, they don't get much done. That's not the way

    [[Page 1303]]

    Susan Collins is. She gets a lot done. Let me talk to you about a couple
    of issues that's dear to her heart and dear to mine.
        First of all, we passed a really good education bill this year. It
    was called No Child Left Behind. And the reason why it was called that
    is because Susan and I believe that when we get it right, that we can
    make sure no child gets left behind in America. It means we've got to
    set high standards and high expectations for every child who lives in
    America. It means we've got to trust the local people to run the
    schools, that we understand that you're not going to have quality
    education if you try to run the public schools out of Washington, DC.
    And it means you've got to hold people to account by insisting upon
    measuring.
        See, we want to know. We want to know whether every child is
    learning how to read and write and add and subtract. And if not, we're
    going to blow the whistle on failure. If not, we're going to insist that
    people change. This business about shuffling children through the
    schools has got to end in America, to make sure no child is left behind.
    And Susan Collins understands that.
        An integral part of the education bill was what we call Reading
    First. It's a national focus on making sure that every child--not a few
    but every child--learns how to read. And Susan Collins put her stamp on
    one of the most important education bills in our Nation's history by
    leading the charge for the Reading First Initiative. The people of Maine
    owe her a debt of gratitude, and so do the people of America, for this
    piece of legislation. I want to thank you, Susan.
        And I appreciate her work on making sure our seniors are well
    treated. Susan insists, like I insist, that the Medicare program be
    modernized. We recognize the Medicare program has fulfilled a mission,
    but it's old, and it's stale, and it's tired, and it's not doing its job
    for our seniors. Medicine has changed, but Medicare hasn't. And we need
    to make sure that we've got prescription drug coverage as a part of
    Medicare for every senior in America, and Susan Collins is leading the
    charge.
        We just passed a good piece of legislation that says to corporate
    America, if you cheat, if you fudge the books, if you don't tell the
    truth, we're going to hold you accountable. And Susan Collins was a part
    of that legislation. And you need to know we're going to investigate
    them, and we're going to arrest them, and we're going to prosecute those
    who have broken their trust with shareholders, employees, and the
    American public. And I want to appreciate your work on that bill, Susan.
        And I appreciate your understanding that Government doesn't create
    wealth; that's not the role of Government. The role of Government is to
    create an environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish, in which
    small businesses can grow to be big businesses. Our role is to make sure
    the climate for economic growth is strong. And it is. Interest rates are
    low. We've got good monetary policy. I can assure you, I will use the
    veto, if necessary, to make sure we don't overspend in Washington, DC.
        We just passed a trade bill for the first time in a long time. I
    want to thank Susan for her support on that trade bill. Opening up
    markets for American goods, for products produced in Maine, for
    agricultural products produced in this State, is good for workers. It's
    so important that we not wall ourselves off from the rest of the world.
    It's important that we be confident. And when you're good at something,
    you ought to promote it. And we're good at a lot of things in America,
    and we need to be selling our goods and services all across the world. I
    want to thank the Senate and the House for giving me trade promotion
    authority. I'm going to sign the bill on Tuesday, and this bill will be
    good for American workers.
        There's some other things we can do when the Senate and the House
    gets back. We need to pass a terrorism insurance bill to make sure that
    large construction projects can go forward. We want our hardhats working
    in America. We want our working people out there. We want there to be
    jobs. And the Senate and the House needs to act. They need to think
    about workers, not about trial lawyers, when it comes to passing good
    pieces of legislation like the terrorism insurance bill.
        And you know something, it turns out Vice President Cheney was
    right. He said, when we first got here, it looked like we might be

    [[Page 1304]]

    in a recession. Of course, some people didn't appreciate him saying
    that. And then all of a sudden, the statistics came out recently, which
    showed that the first three quarters of my administration were negative
    growth. We did, in fact, inherit an economic slowdown.
        And thank goodness, thank goodness I convinced the Congress to let
    the people keep more of their own money. Thank goodness we had a tax
    cut. There are some people in Washington that read a different textbook
    than Susan and I do. They think if you raise people's taxes, it's going
    to be good for the economy. What we believe is that when you let
    somebody have their own money, keep their own money, it means they're
    going to demand a good and a service. And when somebody demands a good
    or a service, somebody is going to produce the good or service. And if
    somebody produces a good or a service, it means somebody is going to be
    able to find work. That's what that means. For the good of the American
    economy, we need to make the tax cuts permanent.
        One of the worst taxes we have in America is the death tax. The
    death tax taxes a person's assets more than once. You know, some of us
    are worried about people being forced to sell their farms or their
    ranches because of the death tax. And so the Senate did a smart thing,
    and the House did a smart thing. It repealed the death tax. But, because
    of a quirk in the law, because of the Senate rules, the death tax comes
    back to life after 10 years. It is important to get rid of this tax once
    and for all. It's important for the small-business owners in America;
    it's important to ranchers and farmers to permanently repeal the death
    tax.
        The economic security of our people is a vital issue, and I will
    continue to work with Congress to make sure we pass needed legislation
    to keep our economy growing. Listen, anytime anybody who wants to work
    can't find work, we've got a problem, as far as I'm concerned. So when
    Congress gets back, we'll continue to talk about ways to make sure that
    the environment for economic growth is strong and viable.
        We've also got a significant issue, obviously. The biggest issue
    that I confront is to make sure the homeland is secure. The biggest
    issue, the biggest challenge that we face, the President and the
    Congress, is to prevent the killers from taking American life again.
    That's the biggest challenge.
        And you need to know--you need to know there's some fine people in
    your Government doing everything they can to run down any hint or any
    lead, any evidence whatsoever, to make sure that they don't hit us
    again. It's a big chore. But there are a lot of fine Americans working
    hard to enable me to say that we're doing everything we can to protect
    you.
        But there's something else we need to do. We need to reorganize our
    Government to make sure that the homeland security function is the
    number one priority of many of our Federal agencies. You see, right now
    in Washington, there's over 100 agencies involved with the defense of
    our homeland. They're scattered everywhere. It makes it awfully
    difficult to hold anybody accountable.
        And so for the sake of changing the culture of many agencies, for
    the sake of insisting that the homeland security is the number one
    priority, I've asked Congress to reorganize much of our Government under
    one Cabinet agency called the Office for Homeland Security. It is vital
    Congress gets it right. The House passed a good bill. I have listened to
    some of the Senate debate. They seem to think that political turf is
    more important than the security of the homeland. I will not accept a
    bill that doesn't allow me to adequately manage people and resources to
    better protect the homeland. The Senate must not protect their own turf;
    they must work to protect the American people.
        But the best way to protect the homeland is to hunt the killers down
    one by one and bring them to justice. And that's what we're going to do.
    And they're out there, and they're tough, but not as tough as the United
    States of America. You've got to understand the nature of the enemy.
    They hate freedom. They hate the fact that we worship freely in America.
    They can't stand the thought that we have open debate, that we have a
    free press. They hate everything we stand for. And therefore, they're
    relentless. But so are we--so are we.
        You know, this is a different kind of war. I'm standing up here with
    a great World War

    [[Page 1305]]

    II veteran. In those days, they would occupy battlegrounds, and they
    would move tanks across fields and formation of aircraft. This is a
    different kind of war. This is the first war of the 21st century. This
    is a war where the so-called leaders of the enemy send youngsters to
    their death, and they, themselves, hide in caves. Oh, sometimes they
    group up. And when they do, they pay a significant price.
         But this is a war that's going to require a different way of
    thinking. It means we've got to have the best intelligence in the world.
    It means we've got to--and we will--maintain a vast coalition of
    freedom-loving countries and make sure the doctrine, ``Either you're
    with us, or you're with the enemy,'' sticks. This is the kind of war
    where sometimes you'll see our victories, and sometimes you won't. It's
    an international manhunt, is what it is. And we've got them on the run,
    and we're going to keep them on the run. And so, as long as I'm the
    President of the United States, we're going to run them down, one by
    one, in order for America to be free.
        And we're making progress. We're making progress. We've captured--
    and I say ``we;'' it's not just America. I can point to country after
    country that has responded to our call. We've captured over a couple
    thousand of their leaders, of their combatants, and just about as many
    weren't quite as lucky. Our strategy is clear. I say this as often as I
    can: If you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist.
    And the Taliban know exactly what I'm talking about now.
        And I want the youngsters here to understand that your great Nation
    did not go into Afghanistan to conquer anybody. We went into Afghanistan
    to liberate--to liberate a people from the clutches of the most barbaric
    regime in history, in modern history. And we did.
        But we've got a lot of work to do, and we're going to do it. I ask
    the Congress for the largest increase in defense spending since Ronald
    Reagan was the President. And thanks to leaders such as Susan Collins,
    the Senate voted, and the House voted, significant increases. And now,
    when they get back, for the good of the war and for the good of the
    country, they need to reconcile their differences and get a defense
    appropriations bill on my desk as soon as possible.
        But Susan understands what I understand. She supported this increase
    in defense spending because anytime we commit an American service man or
    woman into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best training, the
    best equipment possible.
        And secondly, it's a signal to our friends and it's a signal to the
    enemy that we're not quitting. There's not a calendar on my desk that
    says, oh, by such-and-such a day, you've got to quit, Mr. President.
    When it comes to our freedom, America doesn't quit. When it comes to
    upholding our obligation to future citizens of our country, we don't
    quit. When it comes to chasing down people who would harm Americans, we
    don't quit, much to the chagrin of the enemy.
        Our task and our responsibility to history is more than just an Al
    Qaida network. We owe it to the future of civilization not to allow the
    world's worst leaders to develop and deploy and therefore blackmail
    free, loving countries with the world's worst weapons. I'm a patient
    man. I'm a patient man. I've got a lot of tools at my disposal. But I
    can assure you, I understand history has called us into action, and this
    country will defend freedom no matter what the cost.
        I believe strongly that out of the evil done to America will come
    incredible good. I believe that as this Nation leads the world, that we
    can achieve peace. I know that as we remain strong and united and
    focused on fighting terror, on spreading democracy, on embracing the
    values we love, that we can achieve peace. We can achieve peace in parts
    of the world where peace may be an afterthought to so many. See, I
    believe by leading the coalition for freedom, we can achieve peace in
    the Middle East or in South Asia. We can achieve peace not only for our
    homeland but for our friends and allies.
        No, out of the evil done to America can come some great good, not
    only abroad but here at home as well. It's so important for all of us to
    remember that, in the midst of our prosperity, there are pockets of
    despair and hopelessness. There are pockets of addiction. People say,
    ``American Dream,'' and we've got people in America saying, ``What

    [[Page 1306]]

    does that mean? It certainly doesn't mean anything to me.''
        No, out of the evil done to America can come some great good,
    because Americans are beginning to understand that serving something
    greater than yourself in life is an important part of being an American.
    People ask me, ``What can I do to help on the war against terror?'' I
    tell them, love your neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. If
    you want to fight evil--[applause]. If you want to fight evil, mentor a
    child. If you want to do some good, go into a shut-in's home and say,
    ``I love you.'' If you want to be a responsible American, go into your
    church or your synagogue or your mosque and say, ``How can I help
    somebody in need?'' You see, out of the evil done to America is going to
    come some great good, because we can change America one heart, one
    conscience, one soul at a time. And that's what's happening in this
    country.
        I ran for Governor of Texas for a lot of reasons, but one main
    reason was, I was worried about a culture which had clearly said to
    Americans from all walks of life, ``If it feels good, just go ahead and
    do it, and if you've got a problem blame, somebody else.'' I wanted to
    be part of a culture shift that says, each of us are responsible for the
    decisions we make in life, that if you're a mom or a dad, you are
    responsible for loving your child with all your heart and all your soul.
    If you're a responsible citizen, you're responsible for making sure the
    community in which you live is a place of bright lights and hope and
    optimism, that you have a responsibility to help a neighbor in need. And
    that's happening. Out of the evil done to America is good, because
    people are now beginning to understand that shallow materialism is not
    what life is about, that helping somebody and helping our great Nation
    realize its full potential is the culture of America.
        You know, it brought home to me most vividly when Flight 93 was
    driven into the ground. We had people on an airplane who told their
    loved ones goodbye. I want it noted, they said a prayer. One guy said,
    ``Let's roll.'' They served something greater than themselves in life. I
    think this is going to be a defining moment in America's cultural
    history, because we vividly got to see what it means to be a true and
    patriotic American.
        No, out of the evil done to America--out of the evil done to this
    country will come incredible good, because this is the finest nation,
    full of the finest people on the face of the Earth.
        Thank you for helping Susan. God bless. God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:20 p.m. in the Ocean Overlook at the
    Black Point Inn. In his remarks, he referred to Don and Patricia
    Collins, parents of Senator Collins.