[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 39 (Monday, September 30, 2002)]
[Pages 1628-1634]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Senatorial Candidate John Cornyn in Houston, 
Texas

September 26, 2002

    The President. Thank you for coming. Thanks for being here. Thank 
you all. I am here because there's no doubt in my mind that John Cornyn 
needs to be the next United States Senator from Texas. And I want to 
thank you all for--thank you all for coming to help him get there. It's 
important for Texas that he be elected. It's important for America that 
he be elected. He's the best man with whom I can work. He's a man who 
can help us get some things done to make America a safer and stronger 
and better place for all of us.
    It's an honor to be back home.
    Audience member. Welcome home.
    The President. Thank you. I might have changed addresses, but I 
haven't changed homes. [Laughter] And I'm so grateful you all came out. 
Actually, as we get closer to the election, I'm not only working on ways 
to strengthen the economy, also working on ways to keep our country 
peaceful; I'm getting on the road. And it's nice to be in a State where 
I can actually vote for the candidate I'm campaigning for. [Laughter]
    I appreciate John a lot. I appreciate his willingness to run for 
Federal office. I appreciate his willingness to serve in Washington, DC, 
to take his great family--to take Sandy and his two daughters to live in 
our Nation's Capital. It's a sacrifice to leave Texas. [Laughter] But 
it's important that he win. And I'm so proud of John. I'm proud of his 
character, proud of his dignity.
    I really appreciate Sandy. She's a fabulous wife and a great--will 
be a great Senator's wife. As she stands strong by John's side, I'd like 
to remind people that both he and I married above ourselves. [Laughter] 
Speaking about the First Lady, she is--she's in Mexico today 
representing our country. We will meet in Crawford tomorrow night--
Crawford, Texas, that is. [Laughter] She is a remarkable person. She's--
I know there's some Midlanders here--she was born and raised in Midland. 
She was a public school librarian when I met her. The truth of the 
matter was--is that she wasn't that interested in politics--[laughter]--
or politicians. [Laughter] And now she's stuck with the President of the 
United States, and she's doing a fabulous job as the First Lady.
    I want to appreciate all the grassroot activists who are here. Of 
course, I know many of you because I asked for your help in '94 and '98. 
And another guy named Bush has been asking for your help a lot longer 
before that, and many of you provided it. And I want to thank you all 
for what you're going to do on behalf of John and Rick Perry and the 
rest of the candidates running, and that is to turn out the vote.
    It's essential that you continue to man the phones and put up the 
signs and energize the precincts like I know you can do, here in Harris 
County and in other counties. I know we've got some folks from Jefferson 
County here and Midland County. I know there's some folks from Travis 
County. I really urge you to continue to energize the people. This is an 
important election, and so when you go to your churches or your 
synagogues or your community centers, talk it up. Remind people they 
have a duty to go to the polls. And as you get them going to the polls, 
remind them that the best man running for the United States Senate is 
John Cornyn.
    We will face some challenges together in Washington. Of course, one 
of the biggest challenges is to make sure that our people can find work. 
My attitude is, anytime somebody who wants to work can't find a job, is 
we've got a problem in America. And so, we've got to always think about 
how to grow

[[Page 1629]]

our economy. What can we do to create--to encourage the private sector 
to create more jobs?
    See, John and I understand the role of Government is not to create 
wealth but an environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish or the 
small business can grow to be a big business. Seventy percent of new 
jobs in America are created by small-business owners. And we've got to 
always encourage the entrepreneurial spirit.
    I started doing that when I first got up to Washington, by cutting 
the taxes on the people that work. We took a page out of this textbook: 
It says that if you've got an economic slowdown and you let people keep 
more of their own money, they're going to demand a good or a service. 
With more money in their pocket, they're more likely to demand something 
additional. And when they do, somebody is going to produce the good and 
service. And when somebody produces the good or service, somebody is 
more likely to find work.
    The tax cuts came at exactly the right time. They were important. 
But the problem is that because of Senate rules, they go away. Now, 
that's a tough one to explain when you get outside of Washington, I 
readily concede. On the one hand, we giveth; on the other hand, we 
taketh away. [Laughter] That's Washington.
    I need somebody in the Senate who understands the importance of tax 
cuts. I need somebody in the Senate who understands we need to repeal 
the death tax for the sake of our farmers and ranchers and small-
business owners. And that somebody is John Cornyn. Make no mistake about 
it, the candidate in this race who will support making the tax cuts 
permanent is John Cornyn. And that's important for economic vitality and 
economic growth.
    I want somebody up there with whom I can work to get an energy bill. 
We need an energy plan for America. We need a plan that not only gets 
people back to work but a plan that lessens our dependence upon foreign 
sources of crude oil. We import over--we import easily over half of our 
energy, of our crude oil. And unfortunately, sometimes we get it from 
places that don't care for us. [Laughter] And so, for the sake of 
national security and for the sake of job security, we need an energy 
bill. And I want a Senator with whom I can work to get a good energy 
bill, on behalf of Texas and on behalf of America. And that man is John 
Cornyn.
    A stronger America is an America that constantly works to increase 
the job base. We need a terrorism insurance bill in Washington, DC. 
There's a lot of hardhats, good, hard-working people who aren't working 
because big projects can't get going because they can't get insurance.
    The enemy hurt us when they hit us. They hurt our economy. And one 
of the ways they hurt us is, we can't insure big projects. And the 
Congress ought to step in. It's a useful role for the Congress. But we 
need an insurance bill--a terrorism insurance bill that rewards the 
hardhats and not the trial lawyers. We need a good terrorism insurance 
bill. And I can assure you--I can assure you, I know this man's record. 
I can assure you, John Cornyn cares more about hard-working people. He 
cares more about the hardhats than the trial lawyers in America.
    We need people up there who understand that if Congress overspends, 
it will serve as an anchor to economic vitality and growth. It's 
dangerous up in Washington when it comes to your money. Every idea is a 
good idea. Every idea they float up there sounds like a good idea. The 
problem is, in Washington the price tags run into the billions. They 
don't have a budget out of the United States Senate. You can imagine 
what will happen without a budget if there's no fiscal discipline, if I 
don't enforce the fiscal discipline, and if others in the Senate aren't 
willing to stand up and enforce fiscal discipline.
    They can't get a budget. The House has got a budget, but the Senate 
was unable to get a budget in the expenditure of your money, which 
creates a problem. I need to have United States Senators who are willing 
to work with us to fund priorities but to not overspend, Senators who 
understand the money we spend up there is not the Government's money. 
The money we spend in Washington is the people's money. And that Senator 
is John Cornyn.

[[Page 1630]]

    A stronger America is one which constantly works to expand the job 
base so people can find work. And I will continue to do that.
    A stronger America is also one that's got a good bench, a good 
Federal bench. There was an interesting moment in this campaign. I 
nominated a fabulous woman, first-rate woman, named Priscilla Owen--top 
law student out of Baylor; been elected statewide in Texas a couple of 
times, overwhelmingly once; had the highest ranking of the ABA, the best 
rating you could possibly get. I knew she'd be a great judge. Good, 
solid Texas woman, somebody--it would be good to have that attitude and 
her point of view on the bench. So I sent her nomination up there. It 
became political. They distorted her record. They didn't give her a fair 
chance. Shamefully, the Senate turned down her nomination. In so doing, 
that was not only bad for Texas; it was bad for America, as far as I'm 
concerned.
    It's important for the voters of this State to listen to what was 
said by the two candidates running for the United States Senate about 
Priscilla Owen. There's only one candidate in this race that stood up 
strongly with me and strongly supported the ratification of her 
nomination, and that candidate was John Cornyn.
    We also have got to work to make America a safer place. I say that 
because there is an enemy which still hates America, lurking. It is an 
enemy which is different from other kinds of enemies we have taken on. 
See, this enemy--you can't measure the enemy's strength based upon the 
number of tanks he has or the number of aircraft or the number of ship. 
This is an enemy that hides in dark corners of cities around the world. 
This is an enemy which hides in caves and sends youngsters to their 
suicidal death. That's the kind of people we fight.
    They hate us because we love things. We love freedom, for starters. 
We love the fact that we can worship freely in America. We love that, 
and we're never going to relinquish that freedom. We love the fact that 
we can have honest political discourse, there can be debate, that people 
can choose who they want to be the United States Senator. We love a free 
press in America. We love freedom. They hate freedom. So long as we love 
freedom, they hate us, and they want to hurt us. That's just the facts 
of life, as we head into the 21st century.
    The other thing that distinguishes--there's a lot of things that 
distinguishes, but one of the things clearly that distinguishes us, in 
America we value each life. Life matters. Everybody counts. Everybody 
has got worth. That's not the way they think. They have hijacked a great 
religion, and they murder innocent lives in the name of a great 
religion.
    And so we've got to be aware of the facts and reality. I certainly 
am. My number one job and the number one job of future Senators and 
future Congresses is to protect the American people, to guard the 
homeland, to do everything we can to make sure that you're safe.
    And we're making progress. I mean, we're talking better now in 
Washington, DC. The FBI and the CIA share information. Anytime we get a 
lead, a hint, we're moving on it. We're awake to the realities of the 
21st century. No longer are we protected by two vast oceans. And there's 
a lot of good people at the State level and the local level, great 
firefighters and policemen and EMS teams all prepared, and wonderful 
people at the Federal Government--at the level of the Federal Government 
that are working hard to fulfill our number one priority, which is to 
protect you.
    So I went to Congress, and I asked them--I said, ``Look, if the 
number one priority is the defense of our homeland, let's have an 
organization so that the number one priority becomes reality to the 
different--hundreds of agencies involved with the protection of America. 
Let's organize, in a way.'' Listen, I didn't run for office, I concede, 
and say, ``Vote for George. I'm going to make the Government bigger.'' 
[Laughter] That's not my intention. I want it to work on your behalf.
    And so I sent up a bill--or an idea, and the House passed a good 
bill. The Senate is struggling over it right now. The Senate is 
struggling over it because they want to try to micromanage the process. 
They want to tell the administrative--the executive branch, this 
President and future Presidents, who can hire, who can fire, where to 
move

[[Page 1631]]

them. See, that's what they want. They want there to be a lot of rules 
and regulations, and I'm not going to accept that.
    Let me give you some examples. To get a emergency phone number from 
Customs employees--in other words, it makes sense, if you've got a 
problem, you want an emergency phone number--union leaders call that an 
invasion of privacy. See, that's not right. That's a work rule that 
doesn't make any sense in the new era. It might have made sense before 
we became subject to enemy attack, but that doesn't make any sense.
    Port inspectors refuse to carry radiation detectors. If you're 
worried about trying to find a potential weapon of mass destruction, you 
ought to strap on one of those radiation detectors to figure out whether 
they've got one. This is not a harmful device. The leaders of that group 
say, ``They've got to be voluntary. You can't make a person carry a--one 
of those detectors.'' That doesn't make any sense. This is true, what 
I'm telling you. [Laughter]
    Customs inspectors cannot be assigned to sensitive jobs unless 
they're most senior--in other words, that you can only assign people 
based upon seniority, not based upon talent. That doesn't make any 
sense. You see, the enemy doesn't care about these rules. The Senate 
does, and it bothers me. [Laughter]
    Don't get me wrong, there's fine Senators from both parties who care 
deeply about our country. Senators from both parties are struggling with 
this issue. But it is essential for the sake of protecting America that 
we not allow special interests to drive the process. It is essential to 
give this President and future Presidents the ability to move people to 
the right place at the right time to protect America.
    I don't think I'd have any problem convincing John of the need to 
give the President flexibility. As a matter of fact, I know he'd be a 
strong ally. The best way to protect our homeland, however, is to hunt 
the killers down, one person at a time, and bring them to justice. 
That's the best way to protect the homeland.
    It's important for you to know the doctrine I laid out still stands: 
You're either with us, or you're with the enemy. That's clear. I will 
continue to make that clear. Our coalition is strong. We're still 
getting a lot of cooperation. Remember, this is a different kind of war. 
It requires sharing of intelligence and cutting off money and 
communicating closely and hunting these people down. I mean, they hide 
in Karachi. We got the other guy the other day who thought he was going 
to be--wanted to be the 20th hijacker. He popped his head up, and now 
he's in detention. [Laughter] He's no longer a threat to America and our 
friends and allies. He's no longer around.
    It's not a very glamorous war from the sense that the cables and all 
the air time can cover, but it's happening. We've detained over a couple 
of thousand people--I want to say over 2,500 are no--are off the 
streets, thanks to the United States and our friends and allies. I mean, 
we are hunting them down. And about equal that number weren't as lucky. 
They're not around at all, because we've got a fabulous military, by the 
way. We've got some brave soldiers who are--[applause].
    I submitted a significant increase in defense spending, the largest 
since Ronald Reagan was the President, because I wanted to send two 
messages. One, any time this Nation sends our troops into harm's way, 
they deserve the best pay, the best training, and the best possible 
equipment. We owe it to the troops and we owe it to their loved ones, as 
well.
    I also wanted to send a clear message to friend and foe alike that 
the United States of America is in this deal for the long haul; that 
when it comes to the defense of our freedom, when it comes to making 
sure our children can live in a free and civilized society, when it 
comes to defending that which we hold true, we're not quitting. We're 
not quitting. It doesn't matter how long it takes. It doesn't matter how 
long it takes to find the enemy. The United States will stay with it. 
We're a determined nation. We're a strong nation. We're a nation that 
loves freedom.
    And that defense budget sent that signal. The problem is, it hasn't 
made it to my desk yet. [Laughter] See, the House passed it, and the 
Senate passed it. And it hasn't gotten resolved in the conference 
committee. It's very important, before the Senate and the House go home, 
that they give me a defense bill.

[[Page 1632]]

It's a defense bill that is necessary. It sends a important signal. It 
shows that we're resolved and serious. They ought to stop playing 
politics with the defense appropriations bill and get it to my desk.
    No, we'll stay with it. I also want to remind you that--that 
doctrine that says, ``If you harbor a terrorist, if you feed one of 
them, you're just as guilty as the killers.'' And I want you also to 
remind your youngsters about what this Nation did in Afghanistan. Not 
only did we do what we said we were going to do--which is, I think, 
important in life--but we sent our troops in not to conquer anybody but 
to liberate people. We freed a country from the clutches of barbaric 
tyrants. It's unbelievable how backward and brutal these were, 
particularly to women.
    I had the honor of hosting, in the Roosevelt Room, I believe it was 
16 Afghan women who had flown over. And one of the things we promised 
the Government we would do is we would host training sessions for women 
to give them a chance to get--be a part of the Government. That's what 
we want. That's how we--that's what we think is important in life. We 
believe everybody matters, everybody has got worth, in America. And it 
was a touching moment to listen to the women and talk to the women and 
to realize that--and it was a proud moment to realize that our country 
had a part of freeing them, of giving them a chance to realize their 
worth and their potential.
    You see, we love peace, and we love freedom. We don't say to people 
in Afghanistan, ``You must have our form of Government. You know, the 
way America does it, you've got to do it.'' But what we do say is, ``We 
want to free you. We want to give you a chance.'' And so we're going to 
stay in Afghanistan. We're going to stay in Afghanistan to hunt down the 
killers; they still lurk around. They occasionally come in, and we'll 
find them. They kind of bunch up somewhere, and they're just--they think 
they're elusive, and they think they're clever, but they've got the 
mighty United States on them. And we're going to stay on them.
    And we've also got some other tasks ahead of us as well. I went to 
the United Nations the other day to make a case about a true threat to 
freedom, a true threat to the United States, a threat to Israel, a 
threat to peace in the region. And that is Iraq.
    I made the decision to go to the United Nations because I want the 
United Nations to be effective. You see, in order to fight the new wars 
of the 21st century, we need to be able to have collaborative efforts to 
share intelligence, to share information, to arrest, to haul people in. 
And an effective United Nations will make it easier to keep the peace, 
in my judgment.
    But the United Nations, in the face of Saddam Hussein, has not been 
effective. For 11 long years he's defied them. He's wheedled out of 
agreements. He's deceived. He's lied. The question before the United 
Nations is, ``Will you be the League of Nations, or will you be an 
effective body to keep the peace.'' That's my challenge to them.
    I also challenged--I also have made it clear that Saddam Hussein 
must disarm. There's no negotiations. Those ended a long time ago. 
There's no need for us to try to sit down at a table. There's no 
discussion to be had. He's got chemical weapons; he needs to get rid of 
them, all of them. He's got biological weapons; he needs to destroy all 
of them. There's no doubt in my mind he wants to have a nuclear weapon, 
and he's got some capacity. I'm not saying he's got one yet, but he's 
developing the capacity, as we learned right after Desert Storm. He 
needs to get rid of it. No discussion. No debate. No negotiation. The 
burden of proof is on Saddam Hussein.
    And so now it's up to the United Nations and it's up to Saddam 
Hussein to determine whether or not there will be peace, to determine 
whether or not the world's worst leader--and remember, this is a guy who 
continues to torture his people if they dissent. This is a man who's 
gassed his own people. This is a man who attacked two countries in the 
neighborhood. This is a man who used gas on a neighbor. This is a man 
who continually lies. This is a man who does not know the truth. This is 
a man who is a threat to peace. It's up to the United Nations and it's 
up to him to decide their fate. If the United Nations won't act, if he 
doesn't disarm, the United States will lead a coalition to make sure he 
does.

[[Page 1633]]

    I want to thank members of both parties, Republicans and Democrats, 
for joining to work with us to develop a strong statement of resolve. 
Today in the Rose Garden, right before I got on Air Force One, I had a 
public event with Democrats and Republicans, Members of the Congress who 
have joined with us to send a clear message to the world about America, 
our strength of purpose, our desire for peace, our unwillingness to 
accept 11 years of deceit.
    This is not a partisan issue, folks. This is an issue that is 
important for America. This is an American issue, a uniquely American 
issue. And it's--as I reminded the Members, that--I say uniquely 
American issue because I truly believe that now that the war has 
changed, now that we're a battlefield, this man poses a much graver 
threat than anybody could have possibly imagined. Other countries, of 
course, bear the same risk, but there's no doubt his hatred is mainly 
directed at us. There's no doubt he can't stand us. After all, this is a 
guy that tried to kill my dad at one time.
    I take my responsibility seriously as the Commander in Chief. I want 
you to know I understand the--how serious it is to commit our troops. 
But I truly believe that history has called us, and we're going to have 
to act if he doesn't do what he's expected to do. And when we do, we'll 
be swift and strong. If we have to, we'll win. And the world is more 
likely to be at peace after it happens.
    I long for peace. Behind the rhetoric is a deep desire for peace, 
and I believe it's achievable. But we're going to have to remain strong 
and determined. We must continue to speak clearly about good and evil. 
We must be resolved in our determination to defend freedom and to free 
people around the world. And there's no doubt we can achieve the 
mission, no doubt in my mind.
    As we work to make America a stronger and safer place, we have 
always got to remember to make it a better place, too. And that's really 
important. I know John shares my passion for education. We passed a good 
education bill in Washington. I want to share with you, right quick, 
what it says. It says, ``Every child can learn.''
    I don't know if you remember, in the campaign I said, ``I promise to 
challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations.'' I know that when you 
lower standards, that people suffer, and generally when you lower 
standards, they're lowered for inner-city kids or kids whose parents 
don't speak English as a first language. We believe in high standards, 
and we raised the bar. We trust local folks to manage the path to 
excellence.
    But for the first time, the Federal Government says, ``When you 
receive Federal money, you show us whether or not the children are 
learning to read and write and add and subtract. If you receive a dime 
of Federal money, we expect you to perform. Every child can learn, and 
no child will be left behind in America.''
    A better America is one that has got a health care system that is 
responsive to the people. John's got a strong record of holding HMOs 
accountable for bad decisions they make, and I appreciate that record, 
John.
    We need a prescription drug plan for seniors. Listen, Medicare is an 
incredibly important program. It is old. Medicine has changed. Medicare 
hasn't. And we need to change Medicare with medicine, so seniors get the 
kind of coverage they need and deserve. And I look forward to working 
with John on that.
    And I'll tell you, one other thing we need to do in Washington; you 
see, health care needs to be accessible and affordable. Lawsuits are 
driving docs out of business. Lawsuits are driving up the cost of 
medicine. We need Federal medical liability insurance. There's no doubt 
in my mind of the two candidates in this race, John will work with us on 
these issues--no doubt. And as we work on these issues, I believe 
America will be a better place for it.
    You know, the enemy hit us. I can't imagine what was going through 
their mind. They probably thought America was so selfish and 
materialistic and self-absorbed that after 9/11/2001, we might file a 
lawsuit or two. [Laughter] They don't understand us, do they? This 
Nation is a strong nation. It's a fabulous nation. Out of the evil done 
to America is going to come some good. You mark my words. If we remain 
strong and tough in our war against terror, we can achieve peace. We can 
achieve peace not only for America; we can achieve peace in

[[Page 1634]]

the Middle East; we can achieve peace in South Asia. If we remain strong 
and principled and determined, we can have a peaceful world, and I 
believe it's going to happen.
    And at home, if we unleash the true strength of the country, we'll 
have a better America. You see, we've got to understand that in America 
there are pockets of despair and hopelessness and loneliness and 
addiction. There are people who hurt. There are people that when you say 
``the American Dream,'' they say, ``I have no idea what you're talking 
about.'' But that can change, because the true strength of America is 
the people of America. The true strength of America is the fact that our 
country is full of loving and caring and decent people who have heard a 
new call.
    See, I think there is a new culture evolving--one from, if--it says, 
``If it feels good, do it, and, you've got a problem, blame somebody 
else,'' to a culture that says, ``Each of us are responsible for 
decisions we make in life.'' That means if you're a mom or a dad, you're 
responsible for loving your children with all your heart. That's your 
most important responsibility. It means if you're living in a community 
in Texas, you're responsible for the quality of life, and you're 
responsible for loving your neighbor just like you'd like to be loved 
yourself. It says, if you're running a corporation in America, you're 
responsible to tell the truth to your shareholders and employees.
    As a result of this change of attitude, as a result of that, people 
now understand that patriot is more than somebody who just puts his hand 
over his heart; a patriot is somebody who cares for somebody who hurts. 
America is changing. The enemy hit us, but out of the evil will come 
some incredible good--a more compassionate society.
    My call to our fellow Americans is to understand the limitations of 
Government. Listen, Government can hand out money. We can do that, and 
we do a pretty good job of it sometimes. But what we can't do is put 
hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. 
Government is not capable of saying, ``I love you,'' to a child who 
hurts, or ``What can I do,'' to somebody who is shut in. That will 
happen when our fellow citizens recognize we can change America for the 
better, one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time.
    No, the enemy hit us, and it's been tough on America. But out of the 
evil is going to come a peaceful world and a more compassionate society, 
because this is the greatest nation, full of the finest people, on the 
face of the Earth.
    May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 5:36 p.m. in the Imperial Ballroom at the 
Hyatt Regency. In his remarks, he referred to Sandy Cornyn, wife of 
candidate John Cornyn; Gov. Rick Perry of Texas; 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.