Remarks
at Gordon Smith for Senate Reception
Hilton Portland and Executive Tower Hotel
Portland, Oregon
August 22, 2002
6:15 P.M. PDT
Thank you all very much. It's great to be back in this beautiful state. I am
honored to end my day here in Oregon by urging the people of this state, the
good people of this state, to send this good man, Gordon Smith, back to the
United States Senate. (Applause.)
And I want to thank you all for helping him. I want to thank you for what you've
done, and I want to thank you for what you're fixing to do. (Applause.) Which
is to turn out the vote; which is to go to your coffee shops -- if you live
in rural Oregon -- go to your places of worship, go to your community centers,
and remind the people of this state that you've got a good, honorable, decent
man in Gordon Smith. (Applause.)
Not only do you have an honorable, decent man, you've got an independent thinker
who always has Oregon on his mind. I know because I talk to him all the time.
He's reminding me about the good people of this state, and the need to have
common-sense policy.
I also appreciate the fact that he loves his family. He's got his priorities
straight -- his faith and his family. And I am so honored that Sharon Smith
is with us today. And I want to thank Sharon for coming, and I want to thank
Sharon for -- (applause.) There she is. Gordon and I, we both married above
ourselves. (Laughter.) I talked to Laura today. She sent her very best to the
Smiths. And she's not here; she's in Crawford. But she had just come from Leander,
Texas, where they paid her the high honor of naming an elementary school the
Laura Welch Bush Elementary School. (Applause.)
You know, when I married her, she was a public school librarian. And the truth
of the matter, she didn't particularly care for politics, nor politicians. (Laughter.)
Then she got stuck with one. (Laughter.) She's doing a great job. In the face
of crisis, she was calm. In the -- when there needed to be love, she provided
love. And I'm really, really proud of the job she is doing as the First Lady
of the country. (Applause.)
Traveling with me today to emphasize that my words on the -- up on the Hill
were more than just words, that I intend to get something done, were two members
of my Cabinet, Gale Norton, who is the head of the Department of the Interior,
and Ann Veneman, who is the Secretary of Agriculture. (Applause.) And I want
to thank them for coming. These are two fine, fine ladies who are doing a fantastic
job. I've given them big responsibilities. (Applause.)
And it might be noted that I wasn't speaking a foreign language today, as far
as they're concerned -- they're both from the West. (Laughter.) They both have
a Western attitude about things.
I appreciate Congressman Greg Walden being here, as well. I don't know if --
(applause.) All I can see is a hand and an shining head. (Laughter.) But Walden
is a good man; he's doing a fabulous job as a congressman. He represents the
Klamath Basin well; he represents the rural parts of your state. He understands
resource management. He's a good fellow, and I just hope and feel good about
the fact that his district will send him back to Washington, as they send Senator
Smith back to Washington. (Applause.)
I'm very much honored to be here with the next governor of the state of Oregon,
Kevin Mannix, and his wife Susanna. (Applause.) Finally, I'm so grateful that
Senator Mark Hatfield and Antoinette are here. They're great friends of my mother
and dad. They brought a lot of class -- (applause.) They're really classy people,
and he set a fine example for future senators -- an example which Gordon Smith
is following very closely. I like Gordon's attitude a lot. See, he went to Washington
to try to get things done, as opposed to pick fights. There's an attitude there
in that town that zero-sum politics is the best for the country. That's not
the way Gordon thinks, nor do I think, for that matter.
I think it's important for the people of Portland to know that he goes there
with not a political party in mind, but with the people of Oregon in mind. That's
what he goes to do. He goes to solve problems. (Applause.) He sees problems,
and he tries to come up with common sense solutions to solve those problems.
And he's willing to work with his counterpart, who happens to be a Democrat.
I saw them working together today. I saw their conversation and how their discussion.
It wasn't about how we can one-up each other, it was how best to work together
to help Oregon. And that impresses me a lot. I hope it impresses the voters
of this state. That's the kind of tone and attitude we need in our nation's
capital.
Today I was with a man who I believe is a true champion of the environment,
and that's Gordon Smith. He understands that we can be stewards of the land,
that we can put policies in place that will benefit the environment, and at
the same time, benefit people. And that's really important.
I went up on the mountain today, in the midst of a burn, to talk about how best
to prevent those burns from happening in the first place, how to put in place
common sense policy that says, if you let the forests develop kindling, nature
may just cause them to burst into massive flames. So instead of allowing the
kindling to build up, why don't we thin the forests? Why don't we manage the
forests? (Applause.) Why don't we use our God given talents and our technology
to manage the forests, so that the forests are healthy for generations to come?
That's common sense. (Applause.)
It's a logical approach, it's a logical approach to preserving an incredibly
important treasure. And at the same time, when we do it right, it will mean
people are going to be able to find work, it will mean people are going to be
able to put food on the table, which is a vital concern of Gordon's and it's
a vital concern of mine. Listen, any time somebody who wants to work can't find
work, we've got a problem, and we've got to deal with it in a way.
This is a problem, and our job is to come up with solutions to solve the problems.
You know, part of the reason why we can't get some common sense forest management
policies done is because there's too much red tape, there just is. There's too
many rules and regulations -- (applause) -- all bound up to make sure nothing
positive happens, it seems like to me.
So I talked to our Cabinet secretaries, and we're going to do everything we
can, administratively, to cut through the red tape. And there's some things
we can do. We can set priorities, we can declare emergencies, we can get moving
on a policy that makes sense for Oregon and for America. We've got a process
now that allows people to tie up good policy in appeal after appeal after appeal.
Listen, let me make this clear to everybody, we want people to be able to express
their opinion. That's important, that's a great thing about America. People
ought to be allowed to give their opinions on a subject. But they not -- ought
not to use that privilege to tie up good, common sense practice forever, so
nothing gets done except the forests are burning. (Applause.)
And Gordon's an easy man to work with on this topic, because he understands.
And I appreciate his efforts, and I appreciate him constantly educating, not
only me, but others in Congress, about how best to make sure that the Oregon
forests are healthy, and people can find work at the same time.
No, he's got a good approach to government. He also cares deeply about education,
and so do I. We had a fantastic discussion today, by the way, with people from
all around your state, people who came in -- the mayor of Salem, and this business
lady, and this educator. And one of the things that became clear, is that the
people who have got responsibility in your state understand the importance of
education.
We passed a good bill out of the Senate and the House that Gordon supported.
It's a bill that says that we believe in high standards for every child. See,
if you believe that certain kids can't learn, in other words if you have low
standards, that's the kind of results you're going to get. You're going to get
results in which children don't learn. In other words, if you think in your
mind that there are certain children who can't learn, the system will make sure
they don't. In other words, low standards yields low results.
Gordon and I understand we've got to set high standards, and we did. We also
trust the local people to chart the path for excellence for every child in the
state. (Applause.) We worked together to make sure we passed power out of Washington.
One size does not fit all when it comes to public education.
But there's one other thing in part of the bill that I'm just insistent upon,
which makes eminent sense. See, if you believe every child can learn, therefore
you've got to measure whether every child is learning. So in return for federal
dollars, we just said, show us, please show us whether or not children are learning
to read and write and add and subtract. That's all you've got to do. You accept
a lot of federal money for Title I students, just show us they're learning.
See, we believe they can. All you've got to do is show us.
And if they're not, then change. We cannot allow our children to be stuck in
schools that will not teach, and will not change. (Applause.)
I want to thank Gordon for his work on Medicare. He's a leader on Medicare.
He knows what I know. The Medicare system is an important system, but it's antiquated,
it's old. Medicine has advanced, Medicare hasn't. As a matter of fact, in order
to get prescription drugs available for seniors, it requires an act of Congress.
(Laughter.) It is so old, it requires Congress to pass a law. That's an old
system. We need a system that adjusts the needs of each senior. And our Medicare
ought to include prescription drugs for our seniors. It's modern medicine. We
want to modernize the system. And Gordon Smith is one of the leaders in the
United States Senate on making sure Medicare is modernized. And I want to thank
him for his leadership. (Applause.)
Gordon mentioned we've got some challenges, and we do. One of the challenges
was the fact that there was a recession. It turns out when you look at the facts
and the history, when I got sworn in and Dick Cheney got sworn in, the country
was in a recession. We had three quarters of negative growth. And he and I agree,
and thankfully, he was in the Senate at this point in time, that the best way
to help a country recover from a recession is to let people keep more of their
own money. (Applause.) I admit that's a philosophy that frightens some in Washington
because they seem to forget whose money it is we spend. Some of them think it's
the government's money. It's not the government's money that we spend, it's
the people's money.
We understand the textbook, this part of the economic textbook that said, if
you let people keep more of their own money, they will demand a good or a service.
And if they demand a good or a service, somebody's 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 that Gordon Smith fought for in the Senate
came at the right time in American history, and now what we need to do in order
to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is vibrant is to make the tax cuts permanent.
(Applause.)
You ask, why aren't they permanent, and that's because of a quirk in the laws,
in the rules of the Senate. This is one of these deals where we slash the marriage
penalty, we put the death tax, thankfully, on the way to extinction. We cut
marginal rates, which, by the way, benefit small businesses. Most small businesses
are sole proprietorships or limited partnerships, and when you cut individual
income tax rates, you provide more capital in the sector of our economy that
creates more new jobs, and that's small businesses.
But, unfortunately, the law is such that it all comes back after 10 years. It's
kind of hard for me to explain to people in the Crawford Coffee Shop, but that's
just the way it is. That's just the way it is. So, imagine the farmer or the
rancher who's worried about inheritance tax driving him off the land -- they
start planning for this new inheritance, death tax repeal, and all of a sudden,
it comes back into being. It means it creates uncertainty. And people need certainty
when it comes to job creation, and certainty when it comes to estate planning,
and certainty when it comes to their farms and ranches. For the sake of economic
vitality, these need to be permanent. And we need to get rid of the death tax
forever. (Applause.)
We're taking aggressive steps to create an environment in which businesses grow.
That's a difference of philosophy. See, some think government create wealth.
We don't think that. We think the role of government is to create an environment
in which the entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. One way to encourage the entrepreneurial
spirit and to create jobs here in the Northwest is to aggressively seek markets
for products manufactured and/or grown in this part of the world.
Thankfully -- and Gordon was a part of this -- I was able to get trade promotion
authority. It's an authority that had lapsed for a long period of time, and
we fought for it and got it done. And now I want to assure you I'm aggressive
-- going to aggressively promote U.S. and Oregon products in markets all around
the world, for the good of our workers, for the good of people who work. (Applause.)
And finally, we're making progress on one of the drags in our economy. We had
some citizens in our country who decided that they were going to cook the books.
We had some citizens who did not uphold their responsibilities as leaders; that
they -- that they didn't uphold their calling to employee and shareholder alike.
They tried to cut corners. I signed the most comprehensive corporate reform
law since Franklin Roosevelt was the President. And you just need to know that
I got a corporate fraud task force in place that's going to hunt these cheaters
down and bring them to justice, for the good of this economy. (Applause.)
By far, the vast, vast majority of our fellow citizens uphold their responsibilities.
They're honest people. Their numbers are honest. But we're going to audit the
auditors and we're going to make sure the numbers are real, for the sake of
economic vitality. That's what's going to happen here in America.
I've also got a big job besides worrying about people working, and that is to
make sure the homeland is secure. As a matter of fact, that is my most important
job -- is to make sure an enemy which hates freedom, which hates America because
we love freedom, doesn't hit us again. And we're making progress; we are. We've
got a lot of people working hard. Anytime we get a hint of -- that somebody
might do something to us, we're moving. We've got people working overtime to
secure the homeland. It's not only people at the federal level, but it's people
at the state and local level, for which I am most grateful, and I know you are,
as well.
But as -- last fall and the winter I began to think about how best to enable
not only this administration, but future administrations, to do what's going
to need to be done, which is to secure America. I realize there were over 100
agencies -- over 100 agencies -- involved in one way or another with homeland
security. For those of you who tried to manage something, if there's 100 agencies
scattered around, with different bosses, different cultures, different priorities,
it's hard to really bring to account, it's hard to set the priorities.
So I said, well, why don't we have a department of homeland security. I proposed
a new Cabinet officer that would take the different agencies involved with homeland
security and put them under one umbrella, so that we can have as the number
one priority of these folks protecting you. It ought to be the number one priority.
If it's our number one goal, it ought to be the number one priority of every
agency in Washington, D.C. So I've asked Congress to act.
The House passed a pretty good piece of legislation; the Senate is now involved
with the bill. I've got great support from Gordon Smith. However, the Senate
must know loud and clear, I'm not going to accept a bill which is more concerned
about special interests in Washington than people, or more concerned about their
own turf than the protection of the American people. We want a bill -- (applause.)
I need a bill that allows me to move the right people to the right place at
the right time, in order to protect America. Not a bill which tries to micromanage
the process for the sake of special interests that are lodged in Washington,
D.C.
I'm confident that Gordon understands this. I look forward to working with him
to get a good piece homeland security legislation to my desk as soon as they
return from their August respites. Now, having said that -- (laughter) -- having
said that, you've got to know that the best way to protect the homeland, the
best way to secure freedom for the long-term is to hunt the killers down, one
person at a time, and bring them to justice. (Applause.)
And that is what we're doing. And that is what we'll continue to do. And we're
making some progress. We put this coalition together, and as you recall, I said,
you're either with us or you're with them. A lot of people chose to be with
us. And I meant it. I still mean it. I still remind people that that's part
of the doctrine of the first war of the 21st century. And we've got a coalition
together that is working hard. We're sharing intelligence like never before.
We're disrupting finances. This is an incredibly important part of this new
type of war we fight. If we can deny the killers money, it makes it harder for
them to move and plan and plot.
We're arresting people. I bet you we've hauled in over 2,500 folks so far --
not only just America, but other countries that are -- have heard the call.
By the way, about equal number have not been quite so lucky. So we're making
progress. (Laughter.) But we've got a lot of work to do. You just need to know,
we've got a lot of work to do. They're still out there. They still hate. They
don't value life like we value life. Every life precious to America, to our
culture. That's not the way they think.
And so, so long as I'm the President, I'm going to commit our resources, the
resources necessary to defend our freedom. That's why I've asked for the largest
increase in defense spending since Ronald Reagan was the President. (Applause.)
I want our troops well-paid and well-trained. Anytime we commit somebody into
harm's way, they deserve the absolute best from our government. (Applause.)
And I want the message to go to friend and foe alike, we're in this deal for
the long haul. See, this is our freedom at stake. History has called this nation
into action. History has put the spotlight on the great beacon of freedom. And
we're not going to blink. We're going to be a steady, patient, determined nation,
doing what it takes to not only secure the future for our own children, but
the future for other country's children. We cannot let terrorists get the upper
hand, and we won't. (Applause.) And that by being steadfast and resolved, and,
by the way, making it clear the difference between good and the difference between
evil, by making it clear we will not let the world's worst leaders develop and
possibly deploy the world's worst weapons, to try to blackmail America and our
friends and allies -- (applause) -- by being steadfast and strong, I believe
we're going to achieve peace.
And that's one of the great ironies for the enemy. See, they didn't realize
who they were hitting. They thought we were weak and self-absorbed and materialistic
and shallow, and that all we'd do maybe is file a lawsuit or two. (Laughter.)
But that's all we would do. That's what they probably thought. Instead, they
found out that this is a nation that is strong, and good and decent, and that
we're a nation that refuses to be cowed by a few killers. People that hide in
caves and send youngsters to their death -- that doesn't impress us at all.
All that does is make us want to get into the cave with them, and bring them
out. That's what that does.
They didn't understand that when it comes to defending our freedoms, we'll do
what it takes, because we love freedom. We love the idea of people being able
to worship freely. (Applause.) But, see, what they really didn't understand
is that -- they didn't understand that we are determined to achieve peace. That's
the goal. I want our children to grow up in a peaceful world. We might have
to cross some hurdles before we get there, but that's where we're headed, for
a peaceful world. I believe that as we remain strong and dedicated to fighting
terror, that we can achieve peace not only for our own people, but peace in
parts of the world that might have quit on peace. See, I believe we can achieve
peace in the Middle East, or in South Asia.
No, I think there's going to be incredible good that has come out of the evil
done to America, not only abroad, but here at home, as well. People say, well,
Mr. President, I want to be a part of the war on terror, what can I do? And
my answer is, love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself. If
you want to fight evil, do some good. It is the gathering momentum of millions
of acts of kindness and decency which define the true character of America.
(Applause.) It's when somebody mentors a child, when somebody says, I love you,
to somebody who is wondering love is possible. That's part of being a part of
defining America. It's going to a shut-in's house, and saying, what can I do
to help you today? It's a simple act of loving your child every day. It's all
part of the goodness that will come out of America.
You see, there are pockets of despair in this country. And so long as one of
us hurts, all of us hurts. But people in this country are beginning to understand
that by serving something greater than yourself, they understand that one of
us can't do everything, but one of us can do something to help change America,
one conscience, one soul, one person at a time.
No, the enemy hit us, the enemy hit us. But out of the evil done to America
is going to come not only a more peaceful world, but a more passionate America,
because Americans are understanding that the true definition of patriotism is
not only to support a great military, but a definition of patriotism is to serve
something greater than yourself, is to love your neighbor just like you'd like
to be loved yourself.
That's what's happening in this great nation. I confidently and boldly predict
that America will be a better country as a result of what was done to us, because
we're a country full of the most decent, compassionate, strong, honorable people
on the face of the earth.