[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 39 (Monday, September 30, 2002)]
[Pages 1614-1618]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Senatorial Candidate John R. Thune

September 24, 2002

    Thank you all for coming. ``Senator,'' thanks for that kind 
introduction. There should be no doubt where my allegiance is in South 
Dakota, and that's with John Thune, the next Senator from the State of 
South Dakota.
    There's a lot of reasons why I think John ought to be in the Senate, 
starting with the fact that he really married well. [Laughter] Probably 
some of you haven't had a chance

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to meet Kimberley, but you'll know it's true when I say he married above 
himself. [Laughter] They've got a fabulous family. Every time I've been 
to South Dakota, they've been there to greet me. And there's no doubt in 
my mind where his priorities lay, and that is with his family and his 
faith and his State and his country. He's a man of deep value, a good, 
honorable guy. He's a man who will bring credit to the United States 
Senate, and I'm proud to endorse him and to work as hard as I possibly 
can to see that he becomes the next Senator from South Dakota.
    Kimberley was wise enough to skip my speech, and so was Laura. 
[Laughter] She sends her affection to the Thunes and joins me in 
thanking you all for being here to support this good fellow.
    Laura is doing great, by the way. She was a, you know, public school 
librarian when I married her, and she didn't like politics and really 
didn't like politicians, if the truth be known. [Laughter] She liked a 
few of them, but she could never envision herself being involved in the 
political process. And thank goodness she said yes when I asked her to 
marry me. A lot of people are wondering why she did that. But she's 
doing a fabulous job as our First Lady. She sends her best.
    I want to thank some Senators here who are anxiously awaiting the 
arrival of John Thune. I know Trent Lott is here, soon to be majority 
leader of the Senate. I know Bill Frist is here, from Tennessee, in the 
back. Thank you for coming, Bill. I see my friend Larry Craig is here. I 
appreciate you coming, Larry.
    I know a lot of Members of Congress who are here because they know 
John and like him a lot. I want to thank all the supporters and 
organizers who have helped in the past and are helping this time again. 
I appreciate you all coming. It's good to be with friends and people who 
care deeply about the future of our country--something we all have got 
to be concerned about, the future of our country.
    One of the things I like about John is that he's a fellow who can 
get things done on behalf of the citizens of South Dakota and the 
citizens of our country. As you know, a lot of folks are suffering out 
there as a result of a drought. And in Washington there's always a lot 
of talk about trying to get something done, and a lot of times something 
doesn't get done in this town.
    But thanks to his leadership, his willingness to represent the 
farmers and ranchers of South Dakota, he worked with Ann Veneman and my 
administration to get immediate relief to people who hurt. So while 
Washington was talking, John Thune was doing on behalf of the people of 
South Dakota.
    Not only is the drought the challenge, but so is our economy. We've 
got people who want to work and can't find work, and we've got to do 
something about it. And I want somebody in the Senate who understands 
the role of Government, and that's not to create wealth but an 
environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish and in which small 
businesses can grow to be big businesses, an environment in which we 
understand the role of Government is to lay the foundation for growth. 
And that's what we have been doing here in Washington, much to the 
objections of some.
    I want you to remember back during the tax cut debate, I said--and 
John agreed--that we needed to let people keep more of their own money. 
When the economy began to slow, it was important to let people have more 
of their own money so they could spend, and when they would spend, 
somebody would produce a good or a service. And when somebody produced 
the good or service to meet their demand, somebody is more likely to 
find work.
    We got the tax cut passed. But because of the rules of the Senate--
and this one's a hard one to explain. It's a hard one to explain in 
South Dakota, and it's a hard one to explain in Crawford, Texas. But 
because of the rules of the Senate, that tax relief plan we passed goes 
away in 10 years, 9 years from now. And that creates uncertainty in the 
economy. It's hard to plan when the Tax Code shifts around. It's hard 
to--it's hard to envision a future that's stable. And people need a 
stable environment in order to create jobs. For the sake of economic 
vitality, for the sake of job creation, I need people in the Senate who 
will make the tax cuts permanent, a permanent part of our Tax Code.

[[Page 1616]]

    And that includes permanently repealing the death tax. That should 
be an issue in South Dakota. There's a lot of farmers and ranchers who 
are going to get run off their farms and ranches if we don't repeal the 
death tax forever. We don't need people playing games with the death tax 
to mask their desire to keep the death tax in place. When this man says 
he's going to support us to get rid of the death tax, he means it. It's 
an important voice to have in the Senate.
    As well, we've got a problem with fiscal sanity in Washington. Every 
idea is a good idea up here. The problem is, every idea costs billions 
of dollars. The Senate hasn't passed a budget. And when you don't have a 
budget, it is--it's liable to encourage excessive spending. And if 
there's excessive spending, it's going to serve as a drag on job 
creation.
    If you're interested in job vitality, it's important for Washington, 
DC, to be fiscally sound with the people's money, to spend money on 
priorities and only spend money on priorities. And John Thune 
understands that. We need more fiscal sanity in the United States 
Senate, and he will bring that. We proposed--my budget I proposed shows 
us a way to get back to balance after a difficult period of time, after 
an attack and an emergency and a recession. And some in the Senate 
hadn't heard that message. But John Thune will hear it. He understands 
what I understand: The money we spend up here is not the Government's 
money. The money we spend up here is the taxpayers' money, and we need 
to watch it carefully.
    We need an energy bill, for the sake of job creation as well as for 
national security purposes. We need a terrorism insurance bill to get 
our hardhats working again and, by the way, a bill which will reward 
hard work but not reward trial lawyers.
    We need commonsense thinking when it comes to our national forests. 
John understands this. Larry understands this. We've allowed our forests 
to build up like giant piles of kindling, as a result of backward 
environmental policy. We need commonsense practices. We need commonsense 
thinking in the United States Senate. And that's the kind of thinking 
John will bring.
    And we also need to have people up there who understand the true 
challenge we face in America, and the challenge we face is the security 
of our homeland. My most important job, I believe the most important job 
of our Congress, is to work together to make the homeland secure, is to 
do everything we possibly can to prevent an enemy which hates America 
from attacking us again.
    Oh, I know some would wish the enemy would go away, but they're not. 
You see, they hate freedom, and we love freedom. They can't stand what 
we stand for. But we're going to stand for what we stand for forever. 
See, we love the fact that people can worship freely in America. We love 
the fact that people can come to our country and realize their dreams. 
We love the fact that people can debate freely. We love a free press.
    We love everything there is about freedom, and we also value each 
life in our country and around the world. Everybody matters. Everybody 
has worth. Everybody counts. But that's not the way the enemy thinks. 
They don't believe in every life matters. They're willing to take 
innocent life in the name of a hijacked religion.
    And so we've got a big task ahead of us today and tomorrow and down 
the road, and that is to defend our freedoms. And that's why I asked the 
Congress to respond to this notion of setting up a Department of 
Homeland Security. We've got to be able to better coordinate between our 
agencies the defense of our homeland. If the number one priority is 
homeland defense, it ought to be the number one priority of every agency 
involved with homeland defense. And the best way to ensure that happens 
is to put them under one umbrella and then give the President, this 
President and future Presidents, the ability and the flexibility to move 
people at the right place at the right time in order to defeat an enemy 
and to defend America.
    And yet right now in the Senate, the Senate feels like they want to 
micromanage the process--not all Senators but some Senators. They want 
to have a pile of books this thick that will hamstring future 
administrations as to how best to protect our homeland, and I'm not 
going to stand for it.
    I appreciate John's vote on a good homeland security bill. And the 
Senate must hear

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this, because the American people understand it. They should not respond 
to special interests. They ought to respond to this interest: Protecting 
the American people from a future attack.
    Finally, you all know this--John understands this, and I hope you do 
as well--the best way to defend our homeland is to hunt the killers 
down, one person at a time, and to bring them to justice. And that's 
what we're going to do. That's what this country is going to do. And 
that's why I asked the Congress to pass the largest increase in defense 
spending since Ronald Reagan was the President.
    I did so for two valid reasons. One, our people deserve the best 
pay. If you put the uniform on and you go into harm's way, you've got to 
have the best pay, the best training, and the best possible equipment. 
And secondly, I asked for that bill because I wanted to send a clear 
signal to everybody that we're in this deal for the long pull, that 
there's not a moment in time where we say, ``Well, gosh, we quit,'' that 
this country will do whatever it takes to defend our freedoms.
    And one of the things I just call upon the Congress to do before 
they go home is to get the defense bill to my desk. It passed the House. 
It passed the Senate. It's now clogged up in a conference committee. For 
the sake of sending the right signal, for the sake of doing what's right 
for our military, for the sake for doing what's right for planning, for 
prosecuting this war, I need a defense bill before they go home.
    Our job is to keep the peace. Our job is to leave a legacy of 
freedom for our children and our children's children. My job is to 
remain firm and to uphold the doctrine, ``Either you're with us, or 
you're with the enemy.'' That still stands. The doctrine says, ``If you 
harbor a terrorist and feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as a 
terrorist.'' That still stands.
    It also stands that we must not allow leaders who develop the 
world's worst weapons to blackmail the United States or our friends and 
allies, to hold us hostage. I went to the United Nations because I want 
the United Nations to have heard not only the case about Saddam 
Hussein--the fact that he has weapons of mass destruction, the fact that 
he gassed his own people, the fact that he terrorized his neighborhood, 
the fact that he has terrorized his own people much worse than Mr. 
Milosevic did. I also made it clear to the United Nations, we want, for 
the sake of peace, for the United Nations to be an effective body. We 
don't want it to be a League of Nations. We want it to be a body that 
can--that has got the backbone necessary to keep the peace. I'm willing 
to work with nations in the United Nations to not only strengthen that 
institution but to hold Saddam Hussein to account.
    But if the United Nations won't act, if they won't disarm Saddam 
Hussein, if they won't expose this liar for what he is, then the United 
States and other friends of ours around the world will do just that. We 
owe it to our children, and we owe it to our children's children.
    And I want to thank members of both parties in the United States 
Congress for working to develop a strong resolution and strong signal to 
the world that this Nation is determined. We love peace. Military is not 
our first choice. But nevertheless, we will not let the challenges that 
we face go unheeded. We understand the reality. We understand the nature 
of the man with which we deal. Everybody matters. Every life counts, 
including those who have been tortured and killed and suppressed in 
Iraq.
    See, we believe in freedom. We believe in freeing people while we 
free ourselves from threats. I understand the--I understand that the 
world is--some in the world are--don't see it that way. But if we have 
to and when we succeed, the world will thank the United States and our 
friends and allies for making our world more secure and more peaceful.
    I appreciate the fact that people say to me, you know, ``How are 
things going?'' And my answer very quickly is, ``Great, because we're 
the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. We are showing the world 
the true nature of our country, that we're tough when we have to be 
tough, and we're compassionate at the same time.''
    I met with a group of Afghan women who are involved in their 
Government. I reminded them what I like to remind people

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all across our country, particularly the youngsters, that we went into 
their country to uphold doctrine. But we also went in to liberate 
people. Ours is a nation which does not conquer. We have no territorial 
designs or desires. But we love freedom.
    It made me feel so great to see 14 women, who had lived under the 
clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of mankind, 
sitting in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, talking about how to 
enhance education, asking us never to leave until they're secure--which 
I promised them we wouldn't--talking about peace, talking about a 
hopeful future, thanks to the resolve of the United States of America 
and her people.
    I also want you to know that not only will that kind of good come 
out of the evil done to us, but I passionately believe not only can we 
achieve peace in places in the world which have quit on peace, but we 
can address some of our own problems at home in a way we have never 
addressed them before.
    There are pockets of despair and hopelessness in this country; there 
just are. There are people who hurt. There are people who are addicted. 
There are people who say, when somebody says ``the American Dream,'' 
they don't know what they're talking about. See, they've given up on the 
American experience. But that can be overcome as our fellow citizens 
love a neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves.
    You see, the enemy hit us. But they didn't know who they were 
hitting. I like to say that they probably thought that after 9/11/2001, 
we would file a lawsuit or two. [Laughter] What they found is, they 
found they touched a nerve in this country, a nerve that says we'll 
defend our values at any cost.
    But also they touched a nerve where Americans have taken a step back 
and realize that being a patriot is more than putting your hand over 
your heart and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Being a patriot is 
helping a fellow American who hurts, mentoring a child, starting a Boy 
Scout or Girl Scout troop, being involved with a church or synagogue and 
mosque program necessary to feed the hungry or to find shelter for those 
who have no place to live. That's the America that is now showing its 
face to the world. Out of the evil done to America will come incredible 
good, because our people are so good, and we are so great as a nation.
    I want to thank you for helping John. He'll be a great United States 
Senator. Thank you for coming, and may God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 6:18 p.m. in the Ballroom at the Willard 
Inter-Continental Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Kimberley Thune, 
wife of Representative Thune; President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and 
former President Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of 
Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). Representative Thune is a candidate 
for the U.S. Senate in South Dakota.