[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 38 (Monday, September 23, 2002)]
[Pages 1549-1554]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Employees of Sears Manufacturing Company in Davenport, Iowa

September 16, 2002

    Thank you all very much. It's an honor to be here. In 1992, the 
Sears Company got the A team. [Laughter] I'll leave it at that. 
[Laughter]
    I'm honored to be introduced by Jim Leach. He is a distinguished, 
honorable, honest man. We need those kind of people in Washington. I'm 
proud of him. I'm proud to call him friend, and I'm real proud he 
introduced me. I want to thank other members of the Iowa delegation who 
are here today, starting with Senator Chuck Grassley. I appreciate his 
friendship. I appreciate his leadership. I'm also proud to be with Jim 
Nussle and Greg Ganske, two Members of the United States Congress from 
the State of Iowa. We're flying back to Washington--I hope the reason 
they're here is to hear my speech, not to get a free ride. [Laughter] 
Well, we'll find out after I give the speech. [Laughter] But these are 
good folks. They care deeply about our country, and so do I.
    I'm here to talk to you about how to make our country safer and 
stronger and better. That's what we've got to be thinking about during 
these troubling times. Before I begin, I'm grateful to Steve Lovejoy, 
who is the director of operation here at Sears Manufacturing Company, 
for giving me the tour. Big Steve. [Laughter] I appreciate the employees 
who greeted me on the assembly line. I want to thank all the hard-
working people here at Sears for doing such a fine job, for working 
hard, for caring deeply about your families, for upholding your 
responsibilities as a mom or a dad.
    I appreciate the Sears family, Jim and Steve and Lisa Ware, for 
upholding a fine family tradition of not only making a quality product 
but remembering they have a responsibility to the employees who work 
here and treat the employees with dignity and respect, like you do. I 
appreciate your leadership.
    I appreciate Bob Lane, the chairman and CEO of John Deere, coming 
over here today to say hello. It's very interesting, his comment was. He 
said, ``I'm fortunate to be a

[[Page 1550]]

customer of this fine company.'' That's a good sign.
    Finally, at Air Force One, I had the honor of meeting a fellow named 
Dean Claussen. You probably don't know Dean. [Applause] Dean brought all 
his cousins with him. [Laughter] The reason I wanted Dean to come here 
with me is because I had the honor of thanking him for being a soldier 
in the army of compassion. He's a high school junior. He was obviously 
raised right by Dale and Kathy, his mom and dad who are with us. But 
Dean is the kind of person who understands that we can change America 
for the better, one person at a time.
    And so he, as a member of the Scott County 4-H Council--and he 
volunteers his time. He volunteers his time to help those in need. He 
is--told me they're raising books for some kids in Fiji, that he has 
recently fed the hungry, that he understands to be a citizen of this 
country is to serve something greater than yourself. See, the great 
strength of the country lies in the hearts and souls of our fellow 
citizens. And when a neighbor loves a neighbor, indeed, America as a 
whole benefits. And Dean, I want to thank you for your leadership and 
your compassion.
    People oftentimes ask me, ``What can I do to help our country in the 
face of some difficult times?'' And one of them is to love a neighbor 
just like you'd like to be loved yourself. If you want to fight evil, do 
some good. If you want to make a impact in the community in which you 
live, find somebody who hurts, and love them.
    I mentioned we've got some big issues here in America, and we do, 
but there's nothing we can't overcome. After all, this is the finest 
country on the face of the Earth, full of the greatest people.
    I think a lot about the security of our homeland. Matter of fact, I 
think about it every single day. And at the same time, it's important 
for Congress and my administration also never to forget the security of 
the American people. You see, my attitude is, somebody who wants to work 
can't find a job, we've got a problem, and we need to deal with it. And 
so, while the security of the homeland is an important priority, so is 
the security of the American worker.
    I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that the environment 
for job creation is strong. I want people working. I want people to be 
able to put bread on the table for their families. I want moms and dads 
who want to work to be able to do so, for the sake of their families and 
for the good of the country.
    One of the ways we've got to make sure that we keep our economy 
strong is to be wise about how we spend our money. If you overspend, it 
creates a fundamental weakness in the foundation of economic growth. And 
so I'm working with Congress to make sure they hear the message--the 
message of fiscal responsibility.
    See, it starts with understanding whose money we spend in 
Washington. It's not the Government's money we spend. The money we spend 
is your money, and that's the most important premise when it comes to 
budget.
    It also means that we've got to set priorities. You know, every idea 
sounds like a brilliant idea in Washington. Everybody's idea is a great 
idea--just up there they come with billions as the price tag. The bill 
is a little high. So I said, ``Why don't we work together to create some 
priorities, starting with the most important priority which is, defend 
America against killers.'' That's the most important priority.
    I can't put it any other way about them, either. They're nothing but 
a bunch of coldblooded killers. You've just got to understand that about 
the nature of the enemy. They hate us because we love. They hate. We 
love freedom, is why they hate us, and we're not going to quit loving 
freedom. And so our most important priority, when it comes to budgeting 
and time and effort, is to protect innocent life here in America. And 
make no mistake about it, we will--we'll do just that.
    But in order to make sure there is a--priorities are funded, there 
needs to be a budget. And thanks to Jim Nussle, who is the budget man in 
the House of Representatives, we have a budget that focuses on setting 
priorities and focuses on getting us back to a balanced budget. But 
there's been no budget out of the United States Senate. They haven't 
passed a budget. They have no plan to balance the budget.

[[Page 1551]]

    And that's of concern. It's of concern because if you have no 
budget, it means there's no discipline. And if there's no discipline, 
it's likely that the Senate will overspend. And when they overspend, 
they not only overspend for this year, this coming year, they'll 
overspend for every year afterwards too. For the sake of fiscal sanity, 
the United States Senate must remember whose money we're spending and 
get us a budget and get us to head toward a balanced budget.
    And while they're worrying about the budget and money, they need to 
give me a defense bill. They need to get--stop talking, and get a 
defense bill to my desk. If the number one priority is to defend the 
American people, the best thing they need to do is pass the defense 
bill, so we can get after defending the American people next year.
    So we've got to worry about how much we spend. And by the way, 
there's plenty of money up there. We've got to worry about how much we 
spend, in order to make sure that our economy continues to grow. I'm 
worried about the economic security for every American. I'm also 
optimistic about the future, because inflation is down, interest rates 
are down, the productivity of the American worker is the best in the 
world, we've got the best farmers and ranchers in the world.
    I've read that textbook, that economic textbook that says, when 
there's a recession--and by the way, when we first came in, there was a 
recession. We had three quarters of negative growth. That's the 
definition of recession. One way to encourage economic growth is to let 
the people keep more of their own money. You see, if you have more money 
in your pocket, you're going to demand a good or a service. And when you 
demand a good or a service, somebody is likely to produce or to make 
that good or produce that service. And when somebody produces the good 
and service, it means somebody is more likely to find work. The tax 
relief plan we passed, which says we trust the American people with 
their own money, came at the right time in American economic history, 
and we need to make the tax cuts permanent.
    I had the honor of saying hello to the head of the construction 
union, the local man who runs the construction union here, at the 
airport. He came out because we're working closely together with the 
head of the national union to get passed what we call terrorism 
insurance. If you're worried about jobs in America, like I am, then 
you've got to make sure that your construction industry is working. You 
want your hardhats out there working.
    And yet when the terrorists attacked us, it created a dilemma for 
people who want to build big building projects. They can't get the 
insurance necessary to go forward. Congress needs to help on this. 
Congress needs to pass a bill that is good for the hardhats of America, 
not good for the trial lawyers, and get a terrorism insurance bill to my 
desk, so over 300,000 workers can find work and get back to work. I say 
300,000--those are the number of jobs which have been delayed or 
scuttled as a result of Congress not coming together to act on this 
important matter.
    And we need an energy bill too. If you're worried about economic 
security in America, we ought to have an energy bill, one which 
encourages conservation, one which encourages renewable sources of 
energy such as ethanol, and one at the same time that makes us less 
dependent on foreign sources of crude oil. It's in our economic 
interests that we have an energy plan. It's in our national security 
interests that we have an energy plan. Congress has been talking about 
energy. They need to get a bill to my desk before they go home to run 
for reelection.
    And so my message to the Congress is, ``Don't forget there are some 
people who are still trying to find work.'' And we need to work 
together. We need to put aside all this Republican stuff and Democrat 
stuff and work together to make sure the economy is strong and vibrant, 
and the great American worker can find work.
    And at the same time, we've got to remember that there's still an 
enemy out there trying to hit us. There's an enemy that I mentioned 
earlier, hates what we stand for. It's a different kind of enemy than we 
have fought in the past. These are the kind, they don't have tanks and 
formation of aircraft or flotilla of ship. These are the kind that hide 
in caves and then send somebody to their suicidal death. These are the 
kind that hijack

[[Page 1552]]

a great religion--a religion, by the way, which preaches love and 
compassion and tolerance--they hijack it and then murder in the name of 
that religion. These are the kind that have hate in their heart. And 
these are the kind that we need to do everything in our power to stop. 
We owe it to the sake of our freedom, and we owe it to our children.
    The first thing we've got to do is to make sure our country responds 
here at home to this threat, to this ever--to this threat that just 
keeps going on. And that means that we've got to get our Government 
working in coordination. I proposed a Department of Homeland Security to 
make sure that the agencies involved with securing the homeland have as 
their number one priority your protection. That means that there needs 
to be a single agency where these agencies are housed, so that we create 
a culture of coordination and cooperation, a culture that allows for 
there to be fast movement when it comes to moving people to the right 
place at the right time, in order to respond to an enemy which still 
exists.
    And I'll give you one area where we need to do a better job, and 
that's on our borders. We need to know who's coming into America. We 
need to know what they're bringing into America. We need to know if 
they're leaving when they say they're going to leave America. For the 
sake of the security of the country, we need to have a border which is 
secure, a border which facilitates trade and honest traffic but a border 
which recognizes there--a border--a strategy which recognizes there's 
risks here in the 21st century. We've got to deal with it.
    Now, right now, when you go down to the border, there's three 
different departments dealing with the border, the INS, the Customs, and 
the Border Patrol, all full of fine people. But sometimes the strategy 
differs between the agencies. The uniforms look different, which may be 
all right, but in order to do what's right for the American people, I 
need the capacity to be able to have these agencies work closely 
together. We'll protect workers' rights. We'll protect the collective 
bargaining rights for those who want to join a union at the Federal 
level. But I need flexibility.
    The House passed a good bill. The Senate better not pass a bad bill. 
Otherwise, I will veto it. They need to worry more about the security of 
the American people and less about special interests in Washington, DC.
    So we're working hard to secure the homeland. There's a lot of fine 
folks that are spending a lot of time on America's behalf. Listen, we're 
sharing information. Any time we get a hint--and you've seen these 
alerts--sometime these alerts come up because we're getting people 
talking, and we're hearing what they're saying, and we're sharing 
information better. We assess every threat. We take everything 
seriously. And America is responding.
    But the best way to respond to the threats that we face is to find 
these killers, one person at a time, hunt them down, and bring them to 
justice, which is exactly what America is going to do.
    It takes time. It takes a lot of effort. But we're a determined 
nation. You know, I had the feeling that after September the 11th that 
some around the world would grow weary and tired of this effort. Some 
would say, ``Well, the threat really doesn't exist anymore.'' That's not 
how America feels. That's not how that fellow we just picked up in 
Pakistan feels too. He's the one that thought he was going to be the 
20th bomber. He thought he could hide. He thought he could still 
threaten America. But he forgot the greatest nation on the face of the 
Earth is after him, one person at a time.
    We put together a great alliance. There are other people in this 
world who love freedom just like we do. There are other countries with 
some strong leaders who understand the stakes, that understand that 
history has now put the spotlight on us to find out what we're made out 
of. And so our alliance is strong, and we're hunting them down one at a 
time. We've captured over 2,500 or so of these; about that many weren't 
as lucky.
    Thanks to the United States military--and by the way, those who 
serve our military are some of the finest citizens we have here in 
America. Troops have made a huge sacrifice--they're sacrificing for 
freedom. They fight at mountain--on mountaintops in thin air--they--
looking down caves. They're slowly but surely doing what I've asked them

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to do, to be on pursuit for the sake of freedom, for the sake of our 
liberty, so your child can grow up in a safe environment.
    And that's why, when I went to the Congress, I asked for a 
substantial increase in defense spending, because I want our troops who 
are placed in harm's way to have the best training, the best pay, the 
best possible commitment. We owe it to them, and we owe it to their 
loved ones. And that defense appropriations bill, which I mentioned 
Congress hasn't passed yet, needs to get to my desk soon--and also sends 
a signal to friend and foe alike, we're in this deal for the long haul. 
When it comes to the defense of our freedom, there is no artificial date 
when we say, we quit. When it comes to securing a future for our 
children and our children's children, we will stay the course.
    And that not only means hunting down Al Qaida and Al-Qaida-type 
terrorists which hate America, it also means dealing with true and real 
threats that we can foresee. One of the most dangerous threats America 
faces is a terrorist network teaming up with some of the world's worst 
leaders who develop the world's worst weapons.
    I gave a speech to the United Nations, talking about Iraq and making 
it crystal clear to the United Nations that Saddam poses an 
international problem. This is a man who poisoned his own people, 
poisoned his neighbors. He's invaded two countries. He signed agreements 
that said he would develop no weapons of mass destruction, wouldn't hold 
any weapons of mass destruction. Yet, for 11 years, he's totally ignored 
what he said he would do. He basically told the United Nations, ``Your 
deals don't mean anything to me.''
    I told the United Nations, it can show us whether or not it's going 
to serve its purpose to help keep the peace, or whether it's going to be 
irrelevant. We, of course, want the United Nations to be relevant. We 
want them to be a part of a framework of peace as we head into the 21st 
century. But I also made it clear, this: that unless there's action from 
the nations at the United Nations, that that's not satisfactory, as far 
as the United States is concerned.
    And if Iraq regimes continues to defy us and the world, we will move 
deliberately yet decisively to hold Iraq to account. We owe this to our 
children. We must anticipate. Somebody said, ``Well, you know, they 
don't have a nuclear weapon.'' I said, ``Well, the most dangerous 
thing''--and we know they're trying to get one--``the most dangerous 
thing would be to find out they had a nuclear weapon after they 
developed one.''
    It's a new world we're in. We used to think two oceans could 
separate us from an enemy. On that tragic day, September the 11th, 2001, 
we found out that's not the case. We found out this great land of 
liberty and of freedom and of justice is vulnerable. And therefore we 
must do everything we can--everything we can--to secure the homeland, to 
make us safe. We need a safe America, a strong America, and a better 
America.
    One way to make sure we have a better America is to make sure every 
single child gets educated in this country. I don't mean a few. I don't 
mean only those in suburban districts. I mean every single child. I'm 
proud to have worked with Members of Congress to pass a bill which says, 
here in America, we believe in high standards when it comes to educating 
children, that we will challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations, 
that we believe the people of Iowa should chart the path to excellence 
for the children of Iowa, and that we expect there to be accountability 
in return for Federal money.
    See, we want to know--if you believe every child can learn, then you 
want to know if every child is learning. And if they're not, we'll 
correct the problems early, before it's too late. There are no second-
rate children in Iowa or in America.
    To make sure there's a better America, we've got to have a place 
where every senior has access to high quality health care. We need a 
Medicare system which works, a Medicare system which recognizes medicine 
has changed and needs to be reformed, a Medicare system which will 
provide better coverage for Iowa's seniors, including prescription drug 
coverage. I look forward to working with Congressman Nussle, Congressman 
Leach, Senator Grassley on the Senate side, to come up with a bipartisan 
effort to make sure this important program, Medicare, works for the 
senior citizens of the State of Iowa.

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    And as we think about helping people, we've got to make sure our 
welfare system remembers that work is an integral part of dignity, that 
we want to help people. We want to help them find jobs.
    No, we can make--do a better job of passing legislation that will 
help America be a better place. But the truth of the matter is, like I 
mentioned earlier, America will become a better place when people follow 
their hearts, when people help people in need.
    One of my most important initiatives in Washington is what I call 
the Faith-Based Initiative, because I recognize that Government can hand 
out money, but what it cannot do is put hope in people's hearts or a 
sense of purpose in people's lives. What I want to do is unleash the 
great compassion of America, by changing America one heart, one soul, 
one conscience at a time. You see, when you love a neighbor, you fight 
evil, but you also leave behind a legacy of compassion and decency. It's 
what I call the gathering momentum of millions of acts of kindness and 
decency, which take place in spite of Government. It takes place because 
our fellow citizens have heard the call, the call to personal 
responsibility.
    One of the things that the enemy did when they hit us is they awoke 
a new spirit in America. It used to be, you know, if it feels good, just 
go ahead and do it, as part of our culture. If you've got a problem, 
blame somebody else. America now understands that ushering in a period 
of personal responsibility, responsible for something other than 
yourself, is important for our country.
    If you're a mom or a dad, you're responsible for loving your 
children. You're the one who is responsible for loving your children 
with all your heart. If you're living right here in the great State of 
Iowa, you're responsible for the quality of life in your community. It's 
you who is responsible for making sure your public schools are the best. 
If you find a neighbor in need, you're responsible for serving that 
neighbor in need; you're responsible for loving a neighbor just like 
you'd like to love yourself.
    No, there's a new patriotism here in America. It's more than just 
working on homeland defense. It's more than putting your hand over your 
heart. It is serving something larger than self. And when we all do 
that, we will make it clear to the enemy that not only did they hit a 
great nation, they hit a nation which is compassionate and decent and 
loving.
    No, evil done to America was mighty and tough, and still many 
grieve. But out of that evil can come incredible good. Out of the evil 
done to America can come peace, peace for our children, peace for our 
children's children. And out of evil done to America can come a more 
compassionate and decent and hopeful country. There's no question in my 
mind--no question in my mind--that we will succeed, because this is the 
greatest nation, full of the finest people on the face of the Earth.
    Thank you for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 10:34 a.m. on the manufacturing floor at 
Sears Manufacturing Co. In his remarks, he referred to Jim Sears, 
president and chief executive officer, Steve Sears, president, truck 
division, and Lisa Ware, director, financial services, Sears 
Manufacturing Co.; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an Al Qaida operative suspected 
of helping to plan the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, who was 
captured in Karachi, Pakistan; and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.