pd05au02 Digest of Other White House Announcements...

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ought to ask the question, ``What works?'' If your program is a faith-
based program and it changes people's lives and they become less 
addicted, we ought to say thank you, and you can have equal access to 
money, and you don't even have to change your mission. We understand the 
power of faith in our society, and we ought to welcome it.
    I understand the strength of America. The strength of America is our 
people. It's not our Government. It's the people. And ours is a 
compassionate and decent nation. You know, I said earlier, out of the 
evil done to us will come some good. People in America understand that 
we're into a different era, we're heading into a different culture. It's 
one that says, ``Serving something greater than yourself is an important 
part of being an American.'' It's a lesson that came through on Flight 
93. People flew an airplane in the ground to save other's lives.
    That example is one that I think is going to stand like a beacon for 
future generations to understand what it means to be an American. It 
means that you, of course, make a living for your family. But it also 
means that when you find a neighbor in need, you love that person. It 
also means that while one of us can't do everything, each of us can do 
something to change America, one soul at a time.
    Out of the evil done to America will come incredible good, because 
our fellow citizens have taken a step back, taken an assessment of 
what's important in life, and realized serving our Nation means helping 
somebody in need. The old culture used to say, ``If it feels good, just 
go ahead and do it, and if you've got a problem, blame somebody else.'' 
I sense a new change in America, where each of us understands we're 
responsible for the decisions we make in life. Each of us are 
responsible for loving our children, if we're fortunate enough to be a 
mom or a dad, loving our children with all our heart and all our soul. 
And each of us understands that in order to be a patriotic American, we 
must love our neighbor like we'd like to be loved ourself, help a fellow 
American in need.
    And that's happening all across our country. I want to thank those 
of you who are doing just that. I want to thank you for hearing the 
call. I want to thank you for setting an example. I want to thank you 
for being a part of the greatest country on the face of the Earth.
    May God bless you all, and may God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in the school's gymnasium. In his 
remarks, he referred to Patrick J. Patterson, program assistant, Sisters 
of Charity Foundation. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a 
Spanish language transcript of these remarks.


<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page 1277-1282]
 
Pages 1271-1300
 
Week Ending Friday, August 2, 2002
 
Remarks at a Luncheon for Gubernatorial Candidate Mark Sanford in 
Charleston

July 29, 2002

    The President. Well, thank you, Governor. [Laughter] I want to thank 
you all for coming. I'm really glad to be back in South Carolina. I've 
got a lot of fond memories here, if you know what I mean. [Laughter] And 
we've got a lot of friends here, too. It's a great State. After all, 
it's the State where my mother went to high school.
    But it's an honor to be here to work for the next Governor of the 
State of South Carolina. I want to thank you all very much for 
supporting Mark. You know that when you find a good one, you've got to 
help him, and you've found a good one in Mark Sanford.
    I particularly thank those who are going to put up the signs and 
lick the envelopes and make all the phone calls, those tireless workers 
at the grassroots level who can decide the fate of an election. You've 
got a vibrant Republican Party here in South Carolina. You've got a lot 
of folks who never get thanked enough. And so not only do I want to 
thank those who have helped Mark financially, I want to thank those of 
you who are going to put some shoe leather out there to work hard to 
make sure that you turn out the vote next November. It's important for 
our country; it's important for this State that this good man become the 
next Governor of the State of South Carolina.
    And I love a family man. They started coming through the photo op 
line; I never thought the Sanford kids were going to stop.

[[Page 1278]]

[Laughter] But it was an honor to meet Marshall, Landon, Bolton, and 
Blake, but more importantly, the mom, Jenny Sanford, the great future 
first lady of the State of South Carolina.
    We both married above ourselves. [Laughter] I'm sorry the First Lady 
is not here with me. She's hiking. But I can't tell you how proud I am 
of her. She's doing a fabulous job as the First Lady of the United 
States. Who would have thought a former public school librarian, who 
didn't like politics or politicians--[laughter]--would be where she is? 
Thank goodness. She's doing great.
    A lot of you who I met earlier said they're praying for me and 
praying for my family. It's the kindest gift you can give a President 
and his family, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for 
your prayers.
    I want to thank members of the fine South Carolina delegation who 
are here. That would be Congressman Henry Brown, right here from 
Charleston; Congressman Joe Wilson, I first met him one time when I was 
marching with him in the Okra Strut in Irmo; Congressman Jim DeMint, 
from up north--[laughter]--and the next United States Senator from South 
Carolina, Lindsey Graham.
    I appreciate some of the State folks showing up, too. There will be 
two former Governors here, Carroll Campbell and Jim Edwards. I want to 
thank them both for being here. And Mark, when you win, you need to ask 
their advice. They were great Governors for the great State of South 
Carolina. I also want to thank Iris for being here as well. Iris, it's 
great to see you again. And I want to thank Ann Edwards as well.
    I also want to thank my friend the Lieutenant Governor, Bob Peeler, 
for being here as well. Thank you for coming, Bob. And I want to thank 
you and the attorney general, Charlie Condon, for working hard to unite 
the Republican Party.
    And I know the Speaker is here.
    Mr. David H. Wilkins. Yes, sir.
    The President. Mr. Speaker--oh, there you are. [Laughter] I 
appreciate you coming. It's great to see you again, friend; great to see 
your great wife. Tell those boys of yours hello for me.
    I also want to thank Gresham Barrett, who's going to become the--who 
is the Republican candidate for the third congressional district. We're 
pulling for you, Gresham. We wish you all the best. Thank you for being 
here.
    I think it's fairly important to have somebody who is going to be 
your Governor who is willing to change the tone if the tone is divisive. 
See, what we need is more people in public office who understand it's 
important to unite people to get things done. And there's nothing worse 
than old-style politics, the politics that wants to pit one group of 
people against another; the politics that says it's much better to call 
somebody names than to lead.
    And when Mark says he wants to change the tone in the statehouse in 
South Carolina, I believe him. And I believe it will be important for 
the people of South Carolina to have a change of tone in the capital, so 
he can get some things done on behalf of all the people of this State. 
Not just the Republicans but all the people of South Carolina need a 
Governor who's willing to set big goals, a strong agenda, willing to 
bring people together to work toward those goals.
    And there's nothing more important than to making sure that every 
single child in this State gets a good, quality education. We passed 
some good legislation in Washington. And one of the things that 
legislation does is passes power out of Washington, so that the local 
folks can figure out the path to excellence for every child. And I'm 
confident in saying to the people of South Carolina, flexibility, with 
Mark as the Governor, will make it more likely that every child in this 
State will be educated.
    It also means you better have somebody as the Governor who believes 
every child can learn. It means setting the highest of high standards. 
You see, I found out as the Governor of Texas, and I have learned as the 
President, if you set the bar low, if you don't believe everybody can 
learn, you're going to get bad results. If you have low standards for 
every child, if you believe, ``Oh, there are some kids in my State who 
can't learn,'' guess what's going to happen. Certain of the children 
won't learn. And the people will be satisfied with just passing kids 
through the system, as if they don't matter.

[[Page 1279]]

    No, I believe it's important to put people in office who set the 
highest of high standards, who believes every single child can learn, 
and who's willing to measure to determine they are. I think it's so 
important to have a Governor who believes in strong accountability, who 
wants to measure early whether or not children can read and write and 
add and subtract, and if they can't, do something about it early, before 
it's too late.
    It is so fundamentally important that we view each child as a child 
of potential, and that we determine whether or not the child is 
learning. And if they are, praise the teachers. But if we find children 
trapped in schools that won't teach and in schools that won't change, 
you better have a Governor who's willing to blow the whistle on failure. 
Every child matters, and no child in South Carolina or no child in 
America should be left behind.
    I appreciate having a man who understands the money he's spending as 
your Governor is not the government's money. It's the people's money. 
And he's a man who set a good example. I was impressed when I read that 
he held his office expenses down, maybe thought the Government was 
writing too big a check for the expenses there when he was a 
Congressman, saved a million and a half dollars of taxpayers' money and 
gave it back into the till, put it back in.
    He understood that when he got a pay raise, that rather than 
accepting the raise, he'd give it to charity. He's a man who leads by 
example. And I think the people of South Carolina ought to pay attention 
to that example, because I know firsthand that there's always a budget 
crisis if you have a Governor who's saying, ``Everything matters. We're 
not going to set priorities.'' It's important to have somebody who's 
fiscally sound with the people's money, who understands whose money it 
is and is willing to set priorities.
    We need a little of that in Washington, DC. It seems like every 
program that comes along is something that needs a little extra money. 
In order to make sure that we hold the line in Washington or hold the 
line in South Carolina, that's why they give the chief executives the 
veto. And I'm confident this man will use his powers wisely to protect 
the taxpayers' money, for the good of all people who live in the State 
of South Carolina.
    And so I'm proud to be here to support Mark. And I ask you to work 
hard. It's a tough run when you're running against somebody who has been 
there for a while. It's never easy. But I'm convinced he's going to win, 
and I want to thank you for helping him win.
    We've got a big--we've got a lot to do in Washington. Before they 
run me out of here, I'd like to tell you how I think things are going in 
the Nation's Capital. First, I know there's a lot of concern about our 
economy. After all, if somebody wants to work and can't find a job, 
can't find work, that's a concern. It's a concern of mine to know that 
there are Americans who are still looking for a job and can't find one. 
And we need to do something about it. We need to make sure that the 
foundation that we've put in place for job creation remains strong. And 
I believe the foundation is strong for economic growth. After all, 
inflation is down, and interest rates are low. We've got wise monetary 
policy. I strongly believe the fiscal policy we put in place--which is 
giving people some of their own money back so they can spend it, as 
opposed to the Government--made eminent sense for economic vitality and 
job creation. And the Congress now needs to make those tax cuts 
permanent so people can plan.
    The Senate, when they get moving, is going to get me a trade bill so 
we can open up markets, which will create jobs for workers all across 
the country. We need to get a terrorism insurance bill out that doesn't 
reward the trial lawyers but in fact encourages construction projects to 
go forward that can't get insurance.
    And tomorrow I'm signing a good bill. It's a bill overwhelmingly 
embraced by Republicans and Democrats that says loud and clear to 
corporate America, we expect you to be responsible. We expect you to be 
responsible with the people's money. We expect you to be responsible for 
the shareholders and your employees. And if you're not, we're going to 
investigate you, arrest you, and prosecute you, if you don't uphold your 
responsibilities.
    I'm optimistic about our economic future, and I'm optimistic about 
the security of our homeland as well. You need to know that we face an 
enemy that are--coldblooded killers,

[[Page 1280]]

the best way I can describe them. These are people that hate freedom. 
They hate what we stand for, and they can't stand the fact that we are 
tolerant of each other, that we worship freely and speak our minds. They 
hate that. And therefore, so long as we're willing to defend our 
freedom, they'll come after us.
    But they also didn't understand America. I just can imagine their 
meetings. They must have sat around saying, ``Well, we attack them, they 
probably won't do anything. It's such a materialistic society. You know, 
Americans are so self-absorbed, so selfish, so worried about their own 
bottom line that they'll just--oh, they may file a lawsuit or two''--
[laughter]--``but that's all they'll do.'' They didn't understand the 
nature of this country. They didn't understand that when somebody 
attacks our freedoms, when somebody tries to take away the values that 
we hold dear, we're plenty tough; we're plenty resolute; and we're 
plenty strong.
    At home we're doing everything we can to protect the homeland by 
chasing down any kind of lead, any kind of hint, any kind of--any bit of 
evidence that somebody might be trying to do something to the American 
people. Our most important priority in Washington is to protect the 
innocent lives of the American people.
    As you know, after a lot of thought and study, I decided to form 
what I call the Department of Homeland Security. And the reason I did is 
because there's hundreds--over 100 agencies all involved with securing 
the homeland in Washington. They're scattered all over the place up 
there. And when you've got so many agencies, it makes it awfully hard to 
hold people accountable. I believe in aligning authority and 
responsibility in order to get good results. And so I've asked Congress 
to join me in setting up a Department of Homeland Security so we can 
better coordinate the efforts to secure the homeland.
    You see, we need to know who's coming in our country and why they're 
coming in and what they're bringing in and if they're leaving on time. 
So we need to reform the border security of the United States of 
America. We need to have an effective strategy dealing with the heroic 
first-responders in South Carolina and all across America--those would 
be your police officers and your firefighters and your EMS teams--so 
that if there's an emergency, there's an adequate response. We need to 
be able to better deal with the potential threat of weapons of mass 
destruction. And we need--we need to be able to take all the 
intelligence gathered from different agencies and analyze them and 
address vulnerabilities to the United States of America. That's what we 
need.
    We need somebody who I can hold accountable. We need to be able to 
say to the American people, ``We understand our most important priority 
is to protect our country, and therefore we formed a Department of 
Homeland Security with a variety of agencies underneath the umbrella, 
all of which have got one responsibility, a primary responsibility. And 
that's to protect the homeland.''
    And I want to thank the House for moving, and I hope the Senate gets 
me a bill soon which will give me the ability to run the Department and 
give me the ability to be able to say to the American people, ``We put 
politics aside and focused on securing our homeland as the most 
important priority in Washington, DC.''
    But the best way to protect our homeland is to hunt them down one by 
one and bring them to justice, and that's what our country is going to 
do. And we're making progress. This isn't one of those wars where, you 
know, you can watch everything on TV or a war where they will eventually 
study--they've had mass movements of infantry and artillery and 
squadrons of aircraft flying all over the place from one point to 
another. This is a war where we're literally chasing them down and 
treating them like they are, which is international criminals. That's 
all they are.
    And we're making pretty good progress. We've--we, when I say ``we,'' 
we've got a mighty coalition of freedom-loving countries who've joined 
us, and others who have heard the message, ``Either you're with us, or 
you're with the other ones.'' And by the way, that doctrine still holds. 
Either you're with the United States, or you're not. Over a couple of 
thousand of them have been captured. And just about that many weren't as 
lucky. And our friends are still--still understand the stakes.

[[Page 1281]]

    You know, I was a little worried about, the farther we got away from 

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