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you and your family.’’ For those of you out which way the wind is blowing—all that do that, thanks. It really is something come down and visit me in Texas. unique about America—you don’t have to show me the party registration card. It’s really one of the fabulous parts of the job— NOTE: The President spoke at 1:15 p.m. in people from all walks that really care the lunchroom at the Harley-Davidson Pil- enough about the Presidency that they will grim Road Powertrain Operations factory. A do that. I’m just going to keep giving it tape was not available for verification of the my best shot. I’m not going to try to figure content of these remarks.

Remarks at Truman High School in Independence, August 21, 2001

Thank you all. Good morning. Thanks gressman from Missouri; Jim Talent is with for that warm welcome. Mary Alice, thank us today, as well. you very much for your great introduction. I wish my wife were with me. [Laughter] And I want to thank the residents of the Like Harry Truman, I married well. John Knox Senior Village for inviting me [Laughter] She would love to be here at to come to Independence, Missouri. I’m this school. I want to thank the school ad- glad I accepted. ministrators, the principals. I want to thank It is exciting to be here. It’s good to the students who are fixing to start school get out of the seat of power, Crawford, tomorrow for giving us a chance to come Texas—[laughter]—and come to Missouri. to your beautiful campus. Speaking about Missouri, I want—it’s im- To the students, let me say as plainly portant for all Presidents to remember what as I can: Your Government’s important. Harry Truman said. He said, ‘‘I try never You’ve got to pay attention to your Govern- to forget who I was and where I’ve come ment. I don’t care whether you’re Repub- from and where I was going back to.’’ lican or Democrat; you need to be involved That’s one thing that Crawford, Texas, re- in democracy in America. You need to take minds me. [Laughter] It reminds me of your vote seriously. where I came from and, after my service And having been in public service for for this great country, where I’m going a while, I can tell you, it’s a noble profes- back to. sion. It’s an important way to serve your I want to thank you for giving me the country and your community. And you can chance to come and talk about a couple of subjects dear to my heart. I want to do so without being the President, by the thank my friend the Senator from the State way. You can be a Congressperson; you of Missouri, , for the invitation can serve in the statehouse; you can work and for his great service to Missouri and hard to get people elected; or you can serve the United States. I want to thank United your community by loving a neighbor like States Congressman for being you’d like to be loved yourself. And that’s here. Thank you for coming, Sam. I want one of the most important initiatives that to thank the United States Congresswoman we’re working on. from this district, Karen McCarthy. Thank And that’s one of the most important you, Karen, for being here. I appreciate initiatives we’re working on in Washington, your time. Also here is the former Con-

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DC. It’s called a Faith-Based and Commu- We’re also making progress in changing nity Initiative. It passed the House of Rep- the tone in Washington. One of my prom- resentatives, for which I’m grateful. We’re ises is, I said I’d go up to Washington and now trying to get it out of the United try to focus more on the people and less States Senate. It’s part of the unfinished on partisanship. We need to focus more business for this year. on the lives of our citizens and remember Let me explain to you briefly what we’re who sent us up there in the first place. trying to do. We’re trying to make sure During the course of the campaign, I that welfare is extended in a positive and told the American people, if you gave me compassionate way. We recognize in Amer- the great honor of serving as your Presi- ica there are some who hurt, some who dent, I would set priorities for our budget. have needs beyond the reach of Govern- And if we had money left over after the ment, some who simply need love and priorities, we would remember who sent compassion from a fellow American. There it to Washington in the first place. The are children in our country who wonder money up in Washington is not the Gov- whether or not the American Dream is ernment’s money; it’s the people’s money. meant for them, children whose mom or And so we came together—with that phi- dad may be in prison. What this Nation losophy in mind, we came together and needs is a Government that stands squarely passed the first tax relief in a generation. on the side of the soldiers of the armies It’s real; it is meaningful; it is important of compassion, those wonderful citizens tax relief. It wasn’t one of these old Wash- who put their arm around a neighbor in ington-style tax relief programs, where the need and say, ‘‘I love you, brother,’’ or Congress or the President got to pick and ‘‘I love you, sister. What can I do to help choose who got tax relief and who didn’t. make your life better?’’ Government should This was fair tax relief. It said, ‘‘If you not fear faith in America. We ought to wel- pay taxes, you get relief.’’ It wasn’t targeted come faith-based programs. tax relief; it was broad tax relief. And we’re making big progress on impor- And the Congress wisely agreed to start tant issues, like health. For the last couple sending money back this summer. Driving of legislative sessions in Washington, the in to the high school here, I saw a sign Patients’ Bill of Rights got stalled over in that said, ‘‘Thanks for the $600 rebate a partisan wrangling. I’m pleased to report check.’’ But what I meant—what I should that a bill passed out of the House of Rep- have done was stop and said, ‘‘You don’t resentatives that I can live with. It’s a bill need to thank me. It’s your money to begin that encourages, fosters, nourishes the rela- with.’’ tionship between patient and doctor. Some of them in our Nation’s Capital But it’s also a piece of legislation that say, $600 doesn’t matter to a family. Well, will not encourage or enhance frivolous what they ought to do is get out of the lawsuits that will drive people out of med- Capital—I presume they are—and come ical care. We want more people with health out and talk to the working people of insurance, not less. We want fewer lawsuits America and find out what $600 means. threatening our providers, rather than I was in the Harley-Davidson plant yester- more, and we want to make sure our pa- day in Milwaukee. A lot of the workers tients have got direct access to important came up and said, ‘‘Thanks for my $600.’’ health care. There’s a good Patients’ Bill One fellow said, ‘‘I built a deck. You need of Rights that, if Congress comes together, to come over and have a beer with me.’’ they can get on my desk, that I look for- [Laughter] I said, ‘‘I quit drinking.’’ ward to signing this fall, after Congress [Laughter] He said, ‘‘How about root comes home. beer?’’ [Laughter]

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The other thing we did in the Tax Code, all across our country, that if you receive which I appreciate a lot—and this is good Federal money, you must measure. You for farmers and ranchers in Missouri and must devise an accountability system to let Kansas, all across the country. It’s good for us know whether our children are learning people who worry about urban sprawl. It’s to read and write and add and subtract. good for entrepreneurs. It’s good for those I’ve heard all the arguments. As the Gov- folks who had a dream to build their busi- ernor of Texas, I heard the arguments ness, make it work, and pass it on to their against accountability, and of course I’ve children. We’re getting rid of the death heard them as the President. On the one tax. That’s an important reform for our hand, you’ll have people say, ‘‘That’s too code. The Tax Code will be more reason- much Government.’’ Folks, my attitude is, able. It will encourage entrepreneurship. It if we spend money, it is reasonable to ask, will get people more of their own money, ‘‘What are the results?’’—particularly when and it was needed. And I’ll talk about that it comes to our children. a little later on. I want to know whether a little child A second area where we’re making great in the third grade can read, and I want progress is in public education. There is to know early rather than late, and so a good, strong reform bill that passed our should you. Because if we don’t find out House of Representatives and a good whether a child can read, oftentimes what strong reform bill that passed the United happens is, they just get shuffled through States Senate. And when we come back, the system. That’s not fair; that’s not right. after the so-called vacation—[laughter]— Phyllis Hunter, my friend in the Houston people need to get the education bill to Independent School District, stood up one my desk. time and said, ‘‘Reading is the new civil And let me talk to you about it right right.’’ How can you realize the American quick. First of all, lest you think I forgot Dream if you can’t read? And if you can’t where I came from, one of the key compo- read, you can’t learn. We’ve got to know. nents in the education bill is to trust the We’ve got to know whether or not the local folks when it comes to running public school systems and the curriculum are education. I strongly believe in local control working, to make sure that no child in of our schools. I don’t believe Washington America gets left behind. It makes sense has got all the answers on how to run the to ask the question, what are the results schools. I do believe we need to pass power all across America? Your motto in Missouri out of Washington, to give school districts is ‘‘Show Me.’’ It’s not ‘‘Pass them more flexibility, more authority. And both through’’; it’s ‘‘Show me whether or not these bills do that, and that’s an important the children can read.’’ component of the bill. And then you’ll hear people say it’s racist But secondly, these bills challenge what to test. Folks, it’s racist not to test, because I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. guess who gets shuffled through the system, It recognizes that too often in our public oftentimes: children whose parents don’t education system, we lower the bar for stu- speak English as a first language, inner- dents. Some folks believe, I guess, some city kids. It’s so much easier to quit on kids can’t learn. That’s the opposite of what somebody than to remediate. And so we’ve I think. I think every child can learn. I got reform at the heart of this bill, and think we ought to have the high expecta- the reform is, every child can learn. No tions. We expect high standards, and we child should be left behind, and we’re expect people to deliver on those standards. going to find out whether or not children And therefore, one of the key components are learning or not. And when they are, of reform is to say to school districts, States we need to praise the teachers. And by

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the way, for the teachers who are here, Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a total review thanks for teaching. It’s a noble profession. of our military force today, as well as a That’s one thing Laura’s going to spend strategic review of what our forces ought a lot of time on. She’s not only going to to look like tomorrow. We’re going to spend a lot of time heralding reading pro- spend money on research and development grams at work or working on libraries— to make sure that not only can we keep expanding libraries around America, but the peace today but that our military is she’s going to do her job—the best job properly equipped, properly trained to she can at recruiting folks to become teach- make the world more peaceful in the out ers—the young, those, for example, who years. have served in our military. We’ve got a And one area that is so important, and troops-for-teachers program that will en- I know there’s been a lot of discussion courage those who have served in the mili- about it, is to make sure America’s pre- tary to get back in the classroom. We’ve pared to address the true threats of the got to do a better job of recruiting good 21st century. I met with President Putin, Americans into the classrooms. as you know, twice. I had the privilege The education bill is a good bill. I look to represent our Nation with our former forward to signing it. It is a sign that we’re adversary and to look him in the eye and making progress on getting things done. say, ‘‘Mr. President, America is not your Washington needs to be a results-ori- enemy. The cold war is over. We need ented world. And one area where we need to discard all the relics of the cold war, better results is with our military. When a treaty, for example, that has codified ha- I campaigned for the Presidency, Dick tred and distrust, called the ABM Treaty.’’ Cheney—and by the way, he’s doing great. I said, ‘‘Mr. President, the threats that He’s a wonderful man and a great Vice face Russia and America and other free- President. I’m really glad he’s decided to dom-loving nations are the threats of weap- leave the private sector to come and join ons of mass destruction in the hands of the administration. But we both said that rogue nations or cyberterrorists. It’s ter- we need to strengthen the military in order rorist threats that face us, and we must to keep the peace. develop necessary defenses to protect our- And we made great progress. The Con- selves and protect freedom-loving people. gress has done great work. We passed pay We need to get rid of the ABM Treaty, raises. I had the honor of signing an addi- so we can research and development—de- tional pay raise in Kosovo when I went velop weapons systems that will meet the overseas, $2 billion additional money to pay true threat facing America. The cold war our troops more, house them better, better is over. The hatred is gone. Let’s come health care for the men and women who together, for the good of freedom-loving wear the uniform. Listen, high morale be- people, to protect us all.’’ Let’s protect gins with treating the men and women who Israel and our allies and America. wear the uniform—treating them well and We’re making good progress about bring- paying them better. And that’s what we’re ing morale back to the military. We will doing. be strong militarily, because this is a peace- We’ve also got a vision for a stronger ful nation, a nation—rests upon freedom, military reflected in the budget. The budg- democracy. It’s such a wonderful land. We et I sent up for 2002, with amendments, cannot retreat within our borders. We’ve was the largest increase in military spend- got to be an active nation to promote the ing since the time of Ronald Reagan. It’s peace, and we will. important not only to spend more, but we And finally, we’re making good progress need to spend more wisely. And that’s why about reforming . Medicare is—

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they usually call it, in the political lexicon, to make sure that they have got a Social ‘‘Mediscare.’’ See, when you talk about Security system available for them. There’s Medicare, then somebody takes your words a lot of young workers who heard the mes- and tries to twist it and frighten people sage that I delivered. And I believe one who rely upon Medicare. That’s an old tac- of the reasons I’m standing here is because tic, an old political tactic. That doesn’t I had the courage to deliver this message. deter me, however, from talking about In order to make sure there’s a Social Se- making sure the system works. Medicare curity system around tomorrow, to make is an incredibly important program. It’s a sure there’s one in the future, we must promise the Nation made to our seniors, give younger workers the option to manage and we’ve got to make sure it works. their own money in the private markets, And one of the things that Medicare if that’s what they choose to do. doesn’t do, it doesn’t provide prescription You notice I said, ‘‘if that’s what they drugs for our seniors. And that doesn’t choose to do.’’ Government ought to trust make sense in a world—a health world that American people to make decisions in their has changed dramatically since Medicare own life. They ought to trust the seniors was first signed. Now, I’ve asked Congress to make the right choices when it comes to—both Republicans and Democrats to to their health care, and they ought to trust think about how to do the following things: younger workers with the choice on how Make sure prescription drugs is available to manage their own money. Remember for seniors; make sure seniors who like the payroll tax—again, it’s not the Govern- their current Medicare system can stay in ment’s money; it’s the workers’ money. And it, the way it is; but make sure seniors in order to have a Social Security System have got a variety of options from which around tomorrow, we’ve got to have a bet- to choose. ter rate of return on the people’s money I said, ‘‘Why don’t you all look at your in order to offset the fact there are fewer own health care plan?’’ It’s not a bad place to start. If the Senators and Congressmen people paying into the system. have got a variety of options from which My point is that we’re beginning to ad- to choose, if their own health care plan dress these difficult issues. Our charge in trusts them to design a program that meets Washington, DC, at least the way I view their needs, why shouldn’t we do the same it, is to not have endless partisan squab- thing for our seniors? Why shouldn’t we bling but to talk about the issues that are say, ‘‘Let’s give seniors choices’’? important for America, to be willing to ad- And then, of course, there’s the Social dress the tough issues, to make sure our Security issue, a longtime political issue as country fulfills its promise, not only today well. Now, it should be becoming clearer but in the years to come. to people that if you’re on Social Security Now, one of the interesting battles, and today or near retirement, the promises our I hope it’s not a battle—let me just say, Government made to you will absolutely one of the interesting opportunities to show be kept. Those days of demagoging the America that we can work together, to be issue should be gone out of the political— the positive guy—[laughter]—is the budget. out of politics. We’ll be talking about the budget. This is But one of the things I learned and one when we actually spend the money. of the things I know, as a result of my See, the first discussion we had was, we travels and studying Social Security, there’s set the budget, the parameters, about the a lot of young folks who recognize the limits of spending. And now the Members truth. And that is, there are not going to of Congress are coming back, and they’re be enough people paying into the system going to actually commit taxpayer’s money.

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And it’s going to be an interesting discus- threat to growth, and that’s excessive Fed- sion. Now, tomorrow my Office of Manage- eral spending. The biggest threat to our ment and Budget will issue what’s called recovery is for the Congress to overspend. a mid-session budget review and will show We have the funds to meet our obligations, in plain terms that we have fully funded so long as they resist the temptation to and will be able to fully fund our Nation’s spend. priorities, that we’ve got enough money to You know, every new way to spend preserve and protect Social Security, that money can be made to sound urgent, im- we’ll pay down over $100 billion of public portant, but we’ve agreed to budget limits. debt, that Medicare, all Medicare, every That’s what a budget is. You set budgets dime that comes into Medicare, will be at your house; the Congress set a budget spent on Medicare, and we can meet our that we all agreed upon. And I expect the priorities when it comes to our military and Congress to live within the limits of the to education. budget that we all agreed on. I am opti- Our budget is in strong financial shape, mistic that we can avoid the—this business despite an economic slowdown that began about shutting down things and not getting last year. The slowdown is serious, folks. things done. I am optimistic, because we’ve Make no mistake about it. It’s real. Since made good progress so far, and both polit- last summer, the economy has grown by ical parties deserve credit. a little over one percent. That’s a slow- Congressman Young of the House and down. Inevitably, the slowing economy has Senator Byrd of the Senate have done a resulted in slowing tax revenues, lower cor- good job on the appropriations process thus porate profits, and in some cases, layoffs. far. We passed two supplemental spending Yet despite the year-long trend, despite bills. One focused on agriculture; one fo- the fact that this has been on for a year, cused on defense. These supplementals in the Federal budget will have the second the past were usually nice platforms for largest surplus in history, in part because people to load up the spending with addi- this administration took immediate action tional programs, things that might sound to address the downturn. We took exactly good but all of a sudden end up busting the right action, at the right time, by push- the budget. And both bodies of the Con- ing the largest tax cut in a generation. You gress stuck to the limits that we agreed will hear people say that tax relief is going to. It’s a good sign. It’s a sign that fiscal to make it hard to meet the budget. But responsibility is now an important part of reality is, tax relief is important to make the psyche in Washington, DC. sure our economy grows. I believe there However, even though I’m optimistic, are some who resent tax relief because they there are some temptations that will face wanted more of your money in Washington, the Congress when they come back. I’d DC. It’s a fundamental, philosophical dif- like to share some of the with you. The ference. first temptation, when it comes to budg- And the fundamental question is, who eting, is what we call the temptation of do you trust? I trust the people with their the false emergency. Now, our budget sys- own money. I’d rather you spend your own tem provides for special consideration for money, than the Federal Government emergency, as it should. We’ve had natural spend your money. I think you can do it disasters, and we need to have money set more wisely than we can in Washington, aside. That’s an emergency, and we need DC. to get money quickly into the communities No, this tax relief has laid the foundation when there’s a natural disaster. An eco- for expanding economic growth. And now nomic recession is an emergency. A dec- we must resist the temptation of a bigger laration of war is an emergency. But far

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too often in the past, the normal has been to haunt us when it comes to budgeting declared an emergency in order to increase your money in the year 2001. the budget. Far too long in the past, well- And finally, there is a—not finally, next meaning Members have declared that such- to finally. [Laughter] I was afraid some of and-such pet project in their district is an you were going to fall out. [Laughter] emergency, and therefore we need to There is a temptation not to listen to the spend that money under the emergency budget in the first place. During the last provisions. That’s going to end. session, the appropriations process created A second temptation is to complain that $35 billion more dollars than the budget the budget has been cut when, in fact, it called for. A budget’s a budget, folks. We is increased. One of the amazing things spent a lot of time working on the budget. about Washington accounting is that when People came together. Both parties said, a budget increase is less than expected or ‘‘Here’s the budget.’’ And I know the less than anticipated or less than someone American taxpayers, and I know the Presi- hopes for, that’s called a cut. [Laughter] dent in this case, expects for Congress to So if budget X goes from point A to point live within the budget we passed. We don’t B and it’s a 6-percent growth and reason- want the budget to be a hollow noise. We able folks come together and say it ought want the budget to be real, and that’s why to only grow at 4 percent, that’s a cut. I’ve been given the power of the veto, to And we’re not going to let the so-called make sure that the budget—make sure the Washington cuts cause the budget to get appropriations are within the guidelines of out of balance. We’re going to blow the the budget. whistle. Then there’s what they call the last And finally—[laughter]—and finally, one minute budget raid. That’s when the bills of the temptations, and perhaps the great- are coming, winding down the process, and est temptation of all, is what we call appro- in order to get votes, Members start de- priations gamesmanship. And here’s the manding this or that. There were 6,000 last way it works. We’ve got a budget of X minute additions to the budget last year, amount, and you add up all the potential some of them small, some of them large, appropriations bills. The budget amount is but all of them adding up to one thing, X. And so they’ll pass one bill of the 13, a budget that could be out of balance. And and they may add a little bit here. Then so as the watchdog of the Treasury, as the they’ll pass another bill, all still within the person who’s got the opportunity to bring budget. And they finally get to the last ap- fiscal sanity to Washington, I’m going to propriations bills, and all of a sudden, if be watching carefully for the last minute the budget amount becomes the appro- budget additions. priated amount, we busted the budget, be- Seven out of the last eight budgets sub- cause of all the previous bills have added mitted by the Executive and passed by the a little here or there. And guess what gen- Congress have raided the Social Security erally is the last ones out? Defense—the or used part of the Social Security to fund defense bill. In other words, they’ll put it the budgets. One of the temptations is to on the President’s desk and say, ‘‘You ei- use Social Security money for something ther get to bust the budget, Mr. President, other than Social Security. Now the good or you have to choose between defense or news is, is that both political parties and perhaps education.’’ That’s gamesmanship. both parties of Congress have declared that And that’s not necessary, folks. That’s not we’re not going to do that. But I’m going good to play with our national security or to watch carefully, to make sure that the our national interests in educating every old temptations of the past don’t come back child.

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And so what I expect and hope is that place was to watch the budget and to trust Congress will, at the very minimum, agree the American people. on the funding levels for defense and edu- But there’s a large call, as well, and that’s cation early in the process, not late. This to work with the American folks to help will be an interesting test of the priorities change our culture from one that will be of the leaders of Congress. It will be an more respectful and more compassionate, interesting test to see whether or not they from one that used to say, ‘‘If it feels good, agree with the administration that our true do it, and if you’ve got a problem, blame priorities begin with educating our children, somebody else,’’ to one in which all of us and a true priority is the defense of our are responsible for the decisions we make Nation. I’m confident we can work to- in life. gether, but it’s going to require the people A responsible culture, a culture of per- to help us watch the process. The people sonal responsibility means that if you’re for- need to pay attention. And if you see the tunate enough to be a mom or a dad, that appropriations process dragging on and it you understand your responsibility is to love looks like the old games of the past, we your children with all your heart and all all need to blow the whistle. We all need of your soul. A culture of responsibility un- to expect better out of Washington, DC. derstands that if you live in a community And I believe we can do better. I know and see a neighbor in need, that instead this: We’re not going to raise the taxes on of relying upon Government, that you the people. I know this: that we’re going ought to walk across the street and help to make sure additional spending doesn’t that neighbor in need. A culture of respon- cut into essential programs, like Social Se- sibility says that if you’re a part of corporate curity or Medicare. I know this: We won’t America, you have a responsibility to the short-change the military, because it’s im- workers that work for you. A culture of portant to rebuild our military. And I know responsibility says that if you’re fortunate this: We’re making progress in changing the enough to hold high office, that you have tone in Washington, and the budget process a responsibility to set the highest of high is the way to show the American people standards and to live by those standards. that we can work together for what’s right. I am honored to be in such a position. Harry Truman brought a lot of wisdom I’m honored to be in a position to help to Washington, in what he said. He said work with decent Americans all across our some things, and I think he called—he was country to usher in this period. And I know a plain-spoken fellow. Nothing wrong with it can happen, because we’re all inhabitants that. [Laughter] Nothing wrong with telling of the greatest land on the face of the people exactly what you believe. Wash- Earth. ington can use a lot of that. He said, Thanks for coming today. May God bless, ‘‘Washington is a very easy place to forget and may God bless America. where you came from and why you got there in the first place.’’ Pretty wise. I think one of the reasons I got there in the first place is to show the American people that it’s possible to work together. NOTE: The President spoke at 8:58 a.m. in I think one of the reasons I got there in the gymnasium. In his remarks, he referred the first place is to do in office what I to Mary Alice Gensor, president, Democratic said I would do, to try to bring some faith Club, John Knox Village retirement commu- back into the political process. I know one nity; Phyllis Hunter, consultant, Texas Read- of the reasons I got there in the first place; ing Initiative; and President Vladimir Putin one of the reasons I got there in the first of Russia.

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