[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 39 (Monday, September 30, 2002)]
[Pages 1620-1625]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the National Republican Senatorial Committee Dinner

September 25, 2002

    Thank you all very much. Well, thanks for coming tonight. I 
appreciate so many of our fellow Americans being here. I'm here because 
I want to urge you to do everything you can to make sure that the United 
States Senate is a Republican Senate.
    In order to make real progress for America, I believe we need to 
have a change of leadership in the United States Senate. And together--
together--we can work together to make America a stronger place, a safer 
place, and a better place for everybody who is fortunate enough to live 
in this country.
    I want to thank Bill Frist, who's the chairman of the National 
Republican Senatorial Committee. I want to thank you for your kind 
words. I want to thank you for your leadership. I want to thank Karyn 
Frist for being a patient woman, standing by this guy. Frist and I 
married above ourselves. We both married Texas women. Laura is not here. 
I wish she were. She's on her way down to do a

[[Page 1621]]

little diplomatic work in Mexico. She sends her best. She sends her 
love. And I can't tell you how proud I am of the job she's doing on 
behalf of America.
    They tell me this is a successful dinner. And I'm not surprised. 
After all, the chairman of the dinner is from Texas, a fine United 
States Senator, a close friend, Kay Bailey Hutchison. Kay, I want to 
thank you for your dedication and for your hard work.
    I also am honored to be in the presence of the next majority leader 
of the United States Senate, Trent Lott. I want to thank all the 
Senators who are here tonight. I appreciate your friendship. I 
appreciate the opportunity to work with you.
    One Senator not here tonight is Senator Strom Thurmond. Today he 
gave what is likely his farewell speech on the floor of a body he loves 
a lot. I join his colleagues and join you all in expressing our 
appreciation and deep admiration for Senator Strom Thurmond and his 48 
years of service in the United States Senate.
    I also want to thank my friend Michael W. Smith and Debbie Smith for 
being here. You're in for a real treat when you hear him sing. He is one 
of the great voices in America. I love his spirit. I love his soul. I'm 
proud to call him friend. I wish I could stay for the songs, Michael, 
but my dinner might get cold. [Laughter]
    I want to work with all of us here in Washington to make America a 
stronger place. And that starts with making sure we do everything in our 
power to make our economy grow. See, if anybody who wants to work can't 
find a job, we've got a problem. And so we've got to continue to focus 
on economic growth and economic vitality. And we made great progress 
when we controlled the Senate by cutting the taxes on the American 
people.
    Well, I know--I know some up here in Washington have read a 
different textbook from most of us. But here's a page we remember. It 
says, ``If you let a person keep more of their own money, they're likely 
to demand a good or a service. And if they demand a good or a service, 
somebody in America is likely to produce that good or a service. And 
when somebody produces a good or a service, somebody is more likely to 
find work.''
    The tax cuts came as our economy was slowing down. The tax cuts came 
at the right time in American history, and we need a Senate who makes 
the tax cuts permanent.
    Working together, we promoted a trade bill, which is good for 
American jobs. If you're a confident nation, like we must be, if you 
believe in the productivity of the American worker, if you believe in 
the strength of the American entrepreneur, you open up markets around 
the world. And thanks to the Senate, and thanks to many Senators here, I 
have now got trade promotion authority, which I will use for the good of 
the American worker.
    We began to lose some confidence in our system because some of our 
fellow Americans thought it was okay to fudge the books, to hide 
numbers. And so we came together, thanks to many in this room, and 
passed the most comprehensive corporate reform since Franklin Roosevelt 
was the President. We believe that those who run corporations in America 
have a responsibility. They have a responsibility to the shareholder. 
They have a responsibility to the employee. And if we catch somebody 
fudging the numbers, there's not going to be any more easy money in 
America; there's just going to be hard time.
    And there's more we can do, and these Senators here in this audience 
understand it. We need an energy bill. We need an energy bill for the 
sake of job security, and we need an energy bill for the sake of 
national security.
    We need terrorism insurance. We want to put our hardhats back to 
work. We need a bill that helps get construction projects moving again. 
But we want a bill that rewards the hard-working hardhats of America, 
not the trial lawyers of America.
    And as the Congress heads to home, it's very important to remember 
that to make sure job creation continues and to make sure our economy 
strengthens, we must not overspend in Washington, DC. It's very 
important that Members of the Congress understand whose money we're 
spending. See, it's not the Government's money. We're spending the 
people's money, and we've got to be

[[Page 1622]]

wise about how we spend the people's money.
    Every idea up here sounds like a good idea. Except in Washington, 
when you start totaling up the bill, it runs into the billions. And so, 
for the sake of job creation, the Congress must not use a continuing 
resolution for pet projects. For the sake of fiscal sanity, we must fund 
our priorities and hold the line elsewhere in the budget. And I 
appreciate the Senators leading the charge in this audience, 
understanding the need for fiscal--that fiscal responsibility equals 
jobs for the American people.
    And for a stronger America, we need good judges. We need people who 
will not write the law from the benches but people who strictly 
interpret the Constitution. I have been appalled at what has taken place 
in the United States Senate recently. I named two good judges, one from 
Mississippi and one from my home State of Texas, Charles Pickering, 
Priscilla Owen. Their records were distorted. I don't think they were 
given a fair hearing. Special interests got a hold of the committee. It 
is not right that these two fine, fine people were denied the bench.
    Soon the Senate will take up the nomination of Miguel Estrada. 
Miguel Estrada is an excellent lawyer. He's a fine man. He's an American 
success story. The Senate should not play politics with this nomination, 
for he will be an outstanding judge. One of the reasons to change the 
United States Senate is to make sure the good judges I nominate get a 
fair hearing, a swift vote, and approval.
    And as we work hard to make sure our economy grows so people can 
find work, we've also got to remember our number one priority, and that 
is to protect our homeland from further attack. There's an enemy which 
hates America lurking around. They hate us because we love freedom. They 
hate everything our country stands for. They can't stand the thought 
that in this great country, we worship an almighty God any way we see 
fit. They can't stand the thought that we have good, honest political 
discourse. They hate a free press. They hate everything we love.
    And there's something else which distinguishes us from the enemy. We 
value life in America. We say everybody has worth. Everybody is 
precious. They take innocent life, as they've hijacked a great religion. 
And because the enemy lurks and because we refuse to yield on our love 
for freedom, we must prepare the homeland for future attack.
    I asked the Congress to join me in creating a Department of Homeland 
Security. I did so because we must better coordinate our defenses. If 
homeland security is the number one priority of the Government, it ought 
to be the number one priority of every agency in Washington, DC. If 
protecting the homeland is the number one priority, we ought to be in a 
position where we can move people to protect our homeland. This 
President and future Presidents must have the ability to put the right 
people in the right place at the right time in order to protect America.
    Unfortunately, some Senators, not all Senators but some Senators, 
believe it is best to try to micromanage the process, believe the best 
way to secure the homeland is to have a thick book of regulations which 
will hamstring this administration and future administrations from 
dealing with an enemy that could care less about thick books of 
regulations. Unfortunately, some in the Senate, not all in the Senate, 
want to take away the power that all Presidents have had since Jimmy 
Carter. And I'm not going to stand for it. The Senate must hear this, 
because the American people understand it: They should not respond to 
special interests in Washington, DC. They ought to respond to this 
interest--protecting the American people from future attack.
    I see Senator Gramm from Texas here. I want to thank Senator Gramm, 
Republican, Senator Zell Miller, Democrat from Georgia, for proposing a 
good piece of legislation. I urge the Senate to support this 
legislation. It is right for America. You see, we have a chance to leave 
a legacy behind. And that legacy could be found in the Gramm-Miller 
bill. I support it strongly. I urge all the Senate to support this good 
piece of legislation.
    The best way to secure the homeland of America, however, is to hunt 
the killers down, one person at a time, and bring them to justice, which 
America will do.
    It's a different kind of war. It used to be you could count progress 
against an enemy by the number of tanks he had or the number of 
airplanes he had or the number of ships

[[Page 1623]]

he was able to float. We're fighting against people who hide in caves, 
people who kind of find dark corners and lurk around them, and at the 
same time, boldly send youngsters to their own suicidal death. Those are 
the kind of people we fight. They don't require much money. But if 
they're trying to get money, we're cutting it off.
    What it requires is a United States that is firm in our resolve, 
determined in our efforts, a United States who is willing--which is 
willing to uphold doctrine. One doctrine is: Either you're with us, or 
the enemy. And that doctrine still stands today. The other doctrine is: 
If you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you hide a 
terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists who murdered 
thousands of Americans.
    And we're making progress. We're making progress in this first war 
of the 21st century. Just ask the Taliban. [Laughter] I want you all to 
remind your children about the great strength and heart of this country. 
Not only do we do what we say we're going to do, but we went into 
Afghanistan not to conquer anybody but to liberate a nation from the 
clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of mankind. 
Thanks to the United States and our friends and allies, young girls now 
go to school for the first time in Afghanistan.
    And we're not leaving. There's more work to do. There are Al Qaida 
killers lurking around the neighborhood. But they must understand there 
is no cave deep enough, there is no corner dark enough for the long arm 
of justice of the United States and our friends and allies. We've 
arrested over a couple of thousand of them. Got one the other day, one 
of the ones kind of bragging about he thought he was going to be the 
20th--20th killer on September the 11th. He poked his head up, and we 
found him. He's no longer a threat to freedom. And there's a lot of them 
like him. Slowly but surely, we're hunting them down.
    And we've got a lot of work to do. There's a lot more effort that's 
going to go into securing America and our friends and defending our 
freedom. And that's why I asked the Congress to pass the largest 
increase in defense appropriations since Ronald Reagan was the 
President. I did so because I firmly and strongly believe that any time 
we send one of our youngsters into harm's way, they deserve the best 
pay, the best training, and the best possible equipment. We owe it to 
them, and we owe it to their loved ones.
    It also will send a message--this defense appropriation increase 
will send a message to friend and foe alike that the United States is 
not going to quit when it comes to our freedom, that no matter how long 
it takes, no matter how tough the task, this Nation will defend our 
freedoms. History has put the spotlight on us. And the world must 
understand that we're not going to blink; we're not going to tire. We 
will do whatever it takes to make the homeland secure and to make 
freedom reign across the world.
    And so my call to Congress is to get the defense appropriations bill 
to my desk before you go home. For the sake of the national security, 
for the sake of sending the right messages around the world, we need to 
get the defense bill complete.
    Not only will we pursue Al Qaida one person at a time, not only will 
we resist terror wherever it lurks, we will also deal with madmen who 
harbor and develop and want to use weapons of mass destruction.
    I made a decision to call upon the international community to join 
us in holding Saddam Hussein to account. I did so at the United Nations 
because I want the United Nations to be an effective body. I remember 
what happened with the League of Nations. For the sake of security, for 
the sake of peace, the United Nations must not become the League of 
Nations. The United Nations must have backbone. The United Nations must 
be willing to uphold resolution. The United Nations must be strong 
enough to hold Saddam Hussein to account.
    After all, he's defied the United Nations for 11 years. He's thumbed 
his nose at the world. He must be laughing when he hears about the 
United Nations and its resolutions, and that's not good for the health 
of the world. He's a man who poisoned his own people. He's a man who 
invaded two countries twice--two countries, once each time. He's a man 
who has got weapons of mass destruction, yet lies to the world. He's a 
man who needs to be brought to justice.

[[Page 1624]]

    And the choice is his to make, and the choice is the United Nations' 
to make. He must destroy his weapons of mass destruction. He must stop 
his deceit. He must stop his lying. He must stop torturing his own 
citizens. And the United Nations must uphold its resolutions. The choice 
is theirs. But if they choose not to, for the sake of our future, for 
the sake of our freedom, we will not let the world's worst leader 
threaten us, blackmail us, or hurt us with the world's worst weapons.
    And I want to thank Members of Congress of both political parties 
for coming together to send a strong message to the world that this 
nation loves freedom--members of both parties coming together to send a 
clear word to friend and foe alike that the United States is united in 
our resolve to defend that which we hold dear, that when we see a 
problem, we will deal with it. We owe it to our children. We owe it to 
our children's children to defend freedom, to free people from the 
clutches of barbarism. We owe it to civilization, itself, to remain 
strong and focused and diligent.
    And as we work to make America a stronger and safer place, we've 
also got to remember to make it a better place too, a better place, for 
all our citizens. Many Senators here joined me in working on an 
education bill. It was the most constructive piece of education reform 
in a long time. See, we believe every child in America can learn. We're 
willing to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. We also trust 
the local people to chart the path to excellence in our public schools 
in America.
    And for the first time, thanks to Senator Gregg and others, we're 
starting to ask the question in America, ``Can our children read and 
write and add and subtract?'' You see, if you believe every child can 
learn, it's a legitimate question to ask. And we find our children 
trapped in schools which will not teach and will not change. We will 
demand--we will demand something else happens. No child in America 
should be left behind.
    For a better America, Congress must remember that those on welfare 
want to work. Work ought to be the cornerstone of the welfare 
reauthorization. In work, people find dignity. In work, people find hope 
for the future. As we debate a welfare reauthorization bill, let us not 
forget the successes of the past, and let's make sure work is the 
cornerstone of a responsible tomorrow for every citizen in our country.
    A better tomorrow means a modern health care system for all, but 
particularly for our seniors. Medicine has changed. Medicare hasn't. For 
the sake of a better tomorrow, we must have a prescription drug benefit 
and a modern Medicare system.
    And finally, a better tomorrow understands that in our faith-based 
and charitable institutions, we find great compassion and hope and love. 
Washington, DC, should not fear faith-based programs. We ought to 
welcome them in the lives of citizens who hurt.
    I say a better tomorrow depends upon programs that emanate from our 
churches and synagogues and mosques as well as charitable organizations, 
because I understand the true strength of the country. And the true 
strength of the country lies in the hearts and souls of our fellow 
citizens.
    Right after September the 11th, after we shed our tears and mourned, 
I was absolutely convinced that out of the evil done to America can come 
great good. And I still believe it today. I believe that if our country 
is steadfast and strong, we can achieve peace.
    You need to tell your youngsters that behind the rhetoric of war is 
a strong desire for a peaceful world; that I long for peace, not just 
for Americans, but because our country values each life, everybody has 
importance. I long for peace around the world. I believe by being tough 
and strong and determined, that we can achieve peace in places in the 
world where people have quit on peace. I firmly believe peace is 
possible in the Middle East. I believe peace is possible in South Asia. 
No, out of the evil done to America can come incredible good if we stay 
the course and if we remain strong.
    And here at home, the evil done to America can yield some great good 
as well. We must remember there are pockets of despair and hopelessness 
and loneliness in America. The Government can hand out money, and we do 
a pretty good job of it here in Washington. But what Government cannot 
do is put hope in people's hearts. It can't put a sense of purpose in 
people's lives.

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    Government can't say to a lonely child, ``I love you.'' That happens 
when a fellow American chooses to be more than just a citizen--a self-
serving citizen. It happens when people understand that the definition 
of a patriot today in America is somebody who's willing to serve 
something greater than yourself in life.
    That example came home most vividly on Flight 93. It's a story that 
I hope will remain etched in the minds of our fellow Americans and 
written in the history books of our country. I think it was a turning 
point of a culture which used to say, ``If it feels good, do it, and if 
you've got a problem, blame somebody else.'' These citizens showed the 
strongest sense of personal responsibility you could possibly imagine. 
After all, they were on an airplane thinking they were flying across the 
country. They heard reports about what was taking place on the ground. 
They told their loved ones goodbye. They told them they loved them. 
History will record that they said a prayer. They asked for guidance. 
One guy said, ``Let's roll.'' They took the plane in the ground to serve 
something greater than self in life.
    It's a vivid example of what America must realize in order to fight 
evil. In order to fight evil, do some good. Love your neighbor like 
you'd like to be loved yourself. Mentor a child. Start a Boys or a Girls 
Club. Be involved with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Feed the hungry. Find 
shelter for the homeless.
    And that's what's happening in this country. No, the enemy thought 
that we might file a lawsuit or two. But instead, they found a 
determined nation, a nation which longs for peace, and a nation which is 
willing to work to save America one heart, one soul, one conscience at a 
time.
    There is no question in my mind that we will succeed as a country. 
After all, we're the greatest nation, the greatest nation on the face of 
the Earth, full of the most loving, hard-working, decent people.
    Thank you all for coming tonight. May God bless you all, and may God 
bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 6:59 p.m. at the National Building Museum. 
In his remarks, he referred to Karyn Frist, wife of Senator Bill Frist; 
entertainer Michael W. Smith, and his wife, Debbie; 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.