I am glad to be back in Mississippi. I thank the warm welcome for a former Texas Governor who is proud to be on stage with the future Mississippi Governor. I am here to remind the good people of this State-Republican, Democrat, or independent-if they are interested in good government, if they want somebody to call upon the best of Mississippi, if they are interested in every person being able to achieve their dreams in this State, they need to elect Haley Barbour as the Governor of Mississippi. Mississippi can do better. It says when he is your Governor, he will have an optimistic outlook for all the people of this State. He believes in high standards and raising that bar. He believes in the vast human potential of Mississippi. There is no doubt in my mind that when you elect Haley Barbour as Governor of Mississippi, Mississippi will do better. And I know him. I know him well. He recounted some of our history. We have been friends for a long time. So when I say, for example, he believes in personal responsibility, I know he believes that way. And when he says he is going to focus on education to make sure no child is left behind in Mississippi, I know he believes that. Whether it was in my conversations with him in Washington, DC, or in Austin, Texas, he always talked about Yazoo City. It is safe to say he never forgot his roots. No, there is no doubt in my mind this good man can do the job. If the people of this State give him a chance, they are going to realize that he is going to call upon the best of Mississippi. He and I share something else in common. We both married above ourselves. I am proud to be on stage with Marsha, had a chance to say hello to Sterling and Reeves. My only advice to those boys was, listen to your mother. I am still listening to mine. Laura sends her love. She sends her love not only to Haley and Marsha; she sends her very best to many of our friends out here today. She is a fabulous wife, by the way, and a great First Lady for America. Speaking about a guy who married well, Senator Lott is with us. Tricia and Trent are really good friends of Laura and mine. We both love our country, and we both love Scottish terriers. Mississippi is really, really lucky to have him as a United States Senator. You have got some pretty good Congressmen, too.

Remarks at a Luncheon for Gubernatorial Candidate Haley Barbour in Jackson, Mississippi


I am proud to call Roger Wicker and Chip Pickering friends. These guys are doing a great job on behalf of this State. It is great to see Chip and his beautiful wife today. I do want you to do me a favor, if you do not mind, a little personal privilege from the ENTITY. I hope you give your dad my best, Judge Charles Pickering. I nominated him to a higher court because I believe in his character. I trust his judicial philosophy. He is a man who will interpret the law, not legislate from the bench. Some Senators are playing politics with American justice. They did this man and this country a disservice. It is time for some on the Senate floor to stop playing politics with people like Charles Pickering's good name. There is a lot of people here hoping Haley runs good at the top of the ticket, starting with the Lieutenant Governor, Amy Tuck. I am proud to have welcomed her to the Oval Office the other day. It is-along with Travis Little-they were up there to, oh, get a picture or two taken. But it was good to talk to Amy again. I had the honor of welcoming her to the Republican Party. I appreciate the courage of your decision, Amy, and I appreciate your willingness to lead. Of course, I did meet Senator Little. I also want to thank State auditor Phil Bryant for being here. I want to thank the-thank you, Phil. I appreciate Mike Retzer, my long-time friend, for working hard for the Bush-Cheney campaign. I also know you have got some candidates here running, and I always like to mention candidates who have decided to take on the task of a statewide race, because it is not an easy job. It is not easy to ask your family to run-have to ask your family to join you in running. But we have got Julio Del Castillo here, who is the candidate for secretary of state. We have got Scott Newton, the candidate for attorney general. We have got Max Phillips, the candidate for agriculture commissioner. And we have got Tate Reeves, the candidate for treasurer. Thank you all for running, I hope you help them. It is good to see your former Governor, Kirk Fordice, here today. I want to thank Jim Herring, the chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, for his hard work. And I want to thank all the folks involved with grassroots politics here in Mississippi.


I want to thank Cindy Phillips, who is the national committeewoman, as well. Finally, there is a special fellow here that my family has known for a long time. He is a really great American, great fellow from Mississippi. Laura and I occasionally slide across the street there in Washington, DC, to go to church at the little St. John's Church in Lafayette Square. One of our favorite things when we get to church is to shake hands and to say hello to one of the special Americans, and that is my friend Sonny Montgomery. It looks like they still remember you here, Sonny. I first want to thank you for your generosity but remind you that there is more to do in the campaign for an important race like Governor. You have got to turn out the vote. You have got to go to your coffee shops and tell the people that may not be quite as interested in politics as you are that there is a lot at stake for Mississippi. When they are just about to sip that coffee, you tell them that Haley Barbour has got a clear vision for the future of this State. He is not going to win it on his looks alone. He is going to win it because he cares about people. See, when he hears somebody is looking for a job, it bothers him. If somebody is looking for a job and cannot find work, it means you have got a problem here in Mississippi. That is the way I feel about the Nation. The role of Government is not to create wealth; the role of Government is to create an environment in which entrepreneurship can flourish, in which small businesses can grow to be big businesses. And that is why, for example, in Washington, I worked with the Congress to pass tax relief. When the economy goes slow, if you let people have more of their own money, they are likely to demand a good or a service. Haley understands that. He understands whose money we spend in Government. We are not spending the Government's money; we are spending the people's money. And you better have you a Governor who understands that when he gets you elected to represent this great State. This economy is beginning to pick up a little steam, but there are still some citizens who hurt. So long as they are hurting, we have got to keep creating an environment for economic growth. It will be important to have a Governor in Mississippi who understands that fiscal discipline is necessary at the State capital.


If you are interested in job creation, Government has got to be fiscally disciplined. If you are interested in job creation, you have got to put policy in place that encourages small-business growth. After all, most small businesses-most new jobs are created by small businesses in America. Haley has got a plan. He is got good ideas. He comes with the right philosophy, and he is got a plan to create jobs here in Mississippi. For the people in Mississippi who are interested in job creation, the right man for the job is Haley Barbour. By the way, one way to make sure this is a good State in which to create jobs is to have a Governor who is willing to take off the-take on the plaintiffs' attorneys and fight for real, meaningful litigation reform. You do not want it said that the fastest growth industry in your State is the plaintiffs' bar. That is not good for attracting industry and creating jobs. You do not want the greatest wealth accumulation in any State to be in the hands of plaintiffs' attorneys. You need to get you a Governor who understands that, who is tough enough to stand up to the special interests that oftentimes dominate State politics, is willing to look those in the eye who are trying to ruin the condition for job creation, who are running your doctors out of your State, look them in the eye and say, I demand that we have reasonable tort reform in the State of Mississippi. Last time I came to your beautiful State, I was here because I was worried about docs getting run out of Mississippi. I will never forget meeting with the guy from the Delta. It was a fellow; he came down from the North. He heard a call. He is what you might call a faith-based doctor, practicing real medicine, but he was motivated by faith to help people who hurt, a fantastic person. The guy never grew up in Mississippi but heard there was a need for health care in this State, so he came here. He wanted to give of his time and talents so somebody might live a better life. And he told me the stories about what it is like to live in a State where the system is not fair anymore, where the lawyers have pushed too far. And he left your State of Mississippi because the premiums went up too high. You lost a good heart in your State because the system is awry.


You need you a Governor who understands that health care must be accessible and affordable, a Governor that when he says he is going to get you medical liability reform, will get you real medical liability reform, not only for the sake of the docs but, more importantly, for the sake of the people who need good health care. In order for this State to reach its full potential, you need to have a Governor who understands the number one priority of any State is the education of the children of that State. Haley understands that. We passed good law in Washington, DC. It is an interesting change of attitude for the Nation's Capital. It used to be we just passed out money in Washington. And we are pretty good at that, by the way. But now we have said, if you are going to receive money for education purposes and elementary and secondary act money and Title I money within that title, is now we expect to see whether or not the children are learning to read and write and add and subtract. See, the State of Mississippi needs a Governor, just like our country needed a ENTITY, that was willing to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. When you lower the bar, you get bad results. If you believe certain children cannot learn, you will have a system that just shuffles the kids through. If you believe it is impossible to teach a certain type of child, guess what is going to happen? That type of child will never learn. I believe it is in the reach with every State and every school to teach the basics. And therefore, in return for Federal money, I expect the basics to be taught. And I want to thank Senator Lott and the Congressman here who stood with me on that important initiative. Now, in return for Federal money, States must show people whether or not our children are learning to read and write and add and subtract. We want concrete proof. And if it is not happening, we will use the measurement systems not as a way to punish the good teachers, but to correct the situation. Haley Barbour agrees with that philosophy. He believes about raising the bar. He believes, support the teachers. But most of all, he knows that we must correct problems early, before they are too late, to make sure that not one single child gets left behind in the State of Mississippi.


I appreciate the fact that Haley understands that there are people who hurt in Mississippi; there are people who are lonely and addicted, people who are homeless, and people who are hungry. He also understands what I know, that the Government can hand out money, but it cannot put hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. That is done when a loving soul puts their arm around somebody who hurts and says, I love you. What can I do to help you? The true strength of this country is the hearts and souls of the American people. And the job of people in positions of responsibility is to rally that spirit. That is why the Faith-Based Initiative that I proposed in Washington is so vital. It is an initiative that Haley fully understands. Listen, there are great programs that come out of Government, and sometimes they work, and sometimes they do not . But we ought to use all avenues, all our strengths, to achieve the common goal that everybody feels the great hope of America. When we find somebody who is lonely and addicted on drugs, we ought not to fear a faith-based program's involvement with that person. You see, sometimes it takes a change of heart to change a habit. And when we find effective programs based upon faith, Government at the Federal level and State level should not fear faith, we should welcome faith into the important delivery of human services to people who hurt. I had a chance to talk to Haley on Air Force One coming down. He came over to Fort Stewart, and I thought it might be okay if I shared some thoughts on the war on terror. I was in Fort Stewart; it is the home of the 3d Infantry Division. They are the troops who took it up the west side, from the south of Iraq to free Baghdad. What an honor it is to stand up in front of fantastically brave troops and to thank them on behalf of a grateful nation. It is important for me to continue to do this because this Nation still remains at war. It is a different kind of war. You saw how different it was on September the 11th, 2001. Instead of armies marching across plains or Air Forces bombing Pearl Harbor, we were attacked by coldblooded killers who took our own assets and flew them into the buildings without regard to the nature of the victim. These people did not care if they were young kids, women, men-no such thing in their mind as innocent or guilt. They are interested in one thing, death.


On that day, this country decided that no matter how long it took, we would find those who would inflict harm upon America and bring them to justice. I will never forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, so long as I am your ENTITY. I have a solemn duty to protect America, and we are making progress. We are slowly but surely bringing the Al Qaida killers to justice. I remind people that over two-thirds of the known operatives and leaders are either dead or captured. And I can assure you, we are after the rest of them. No matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost, we will bring those who harmed America and want to harm America to justice. We owe it to future generations of Americans. We owe it to the peace and security of the world to use our strength to find the killers. Therapy will not work with these kind of people. Treaties make no sense. Get them before they get us, to stay on the offensive. Right after September the 11th, I laid out a new American doctrine that said, If you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you house a terrorist, you are just as guilty as the terrorists. And the Taliban found out what the United States of America meant. Young girls now go to school for the first time, because the Taliban is no more. Girls go to school, thanks to the might of the United States of America. We believe and know that freedom is not America's gift to the world; it is the Almighty's gift to every individual in the world. And we have brought freedom to the people of Iraq in a military operation that was one of the swiftest and most humane military operations in history. We rid the world of Saddam Hussein, and we freed millions of people in Iraq. Terrorist groups will no longer find support in Iraq, and terrorist groups will not ever be able to get weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because Saddam Hussein is no more. But I understand this, that in order to make sure America is secure in the long run and the world is more peaceful, we must spread freedom. Free people do not attack their neighbors. Free people do not develop weapons of mass destruction. The truth of the matter is, the greatest security for America in the long term is the spread of liberty. And that is why it is so important in the heart of the Middle East that we establish a free society in Iraq.


I want to take this opportunity to update the American people about the situation in Libya. Over the last several weeks, the world has watched events unfold in Libya with hope and alarm. Last month, protesters took to the streets across the country to demand their universal rights and a government that is accountable to them and responsive to their aspirations. But they were met with an iron fist. Within days, whole parts of the country declared their independence from a brutal regime and members of the Government serving in Libya and abroad chose to align themselves with the forces of change. Muammar Qadhafi clearly lost the confidence of his own people and the legitimacy to lead. Instead of respecting the rights of his own people, Qadhafi chose the path of brutal suppression. Innocent civilians were beaten, imprisoned, and in some cases killed. A campaign of intimidation and repression began. In the face of this injustice, the United States and the international community moved swiftly. Sanctions were put in place by the United States and our allies and partners. The U.N. Security Council imposed further sanctions, an arms embargo, and the specter of international accountability for Qadhafi and those around him. Humanitarian assistance was positioned on Libya's borders, and those displaced by the violence received our help. Ample warning was given that Qadhafi needed to stop his campaign of repression or be held accountable. The Arab League and the European Union joined us in calling for an end to violence. Once again, Qadhafi chose to ignore the will of his people and the international community. Instead, he launched a military campaign against his own people. And there should be no doubt about his intentions because he himself has made them clear. For decades, he is demonstrated a willingness to use brute force through his sponsorship of terrorism against the American people as well as others and through the killings that he has carried out within his own borders. And just yesterday, speaking of the city of Benghazi, a city of roughly 700,000 people, he threatened, and I quote, We will have no mercy and no pity. Now, here is why this matters to us. Left unchecked, we have every reason to believe that Qadhafi would commit atrocities against his people. The entire region could be destabilized, endangering many of our allies and partners. The calls of the Libyan people for help would go unanswered. The democratic values that we stand for would be overrun.

Remarks on the Situation in Libya


Moreover, the words of the international community would be rendered hollow. And that is why the United States has worked with our allies and partners to shape a strong international response at the United Nations. protecting innocent civilians within Libya and holding the Qadhafi regime accountable. Yesterday, in response to a call for action by the Libyan people and the Arab League, the U.N. Security Council passed a strong resolution that demands an end to the violence against citizens. It authorizes the use of force with an explicit commitment to pursue all necessary measures to stop the killing, to include the enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya. It also strengthens our sanctions and the enforcement of an arms embargo against the Qadhafi regime. Now, once more, Muammar Qadhafi has a choice. The resolution that passed lays out very clear conditions that must be met. That means all attacks against civilians must stop. Qadhafi must stop his troops from advancing on Benghazi, pull them back from Ajdabiya, Misurata, and Zawiyah, and establish water, electricity, and gas supplies to all areas. Humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach the people of Libya. These terms are not subject to negotiation. If Qadhafi does not comply with the resolution, the international community will impose consequences and the resolution will be enforced through military action. In this effort, the United States is prepared to act as part of an international coalition. It means shaping the conditions for the international community to act together. That is why I have directed Secretary Gates and our military to coordinate their planning, and tomorrow Secretary Clinton will travel to Paris for a meeting with our European allies and Arab partners about the enforcement of Resolution 1973. We will provide the unique capabilities that we can bring to bear to stop the violence against civilians, including enabling our European allies and Arab partners to effectively enforce a no-fly zone. I have no doubt that the men and women of our military are capable of carrying out this mission. Once more, they have the thanks of a grateful nation and the admiration of the world. I also want to be clear about what we will not be doing. The United States is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya. And we are not going to use force to go beyond a well-defined goal, specifically, the protection of civilians in Libya. In the coming weeks, we will continue to help the Libyan people with humanitarian and economic assistance so that they can fulfill their aspirations peacefully.

Remarks on the Situation in Libya


You will have to forgive me; you can hear that I have a cold, and so I cannot talk very loud. If you like my speech very much, I cannot talk, because I cannot get over all the cheers. But let me say to all of you, first of all, I want to thank the Keiser family and the leadership of this college for welcoming us here. I want to thank the president of the student body, Dean Samuels, who met me and gave me a gift from the students. I believe in the audience we have, in addition to Representative Hastings, another candidate for Congress on our ticket in an adjacent district, State Representative Elaine Bloom. I want you guys to help her. Let me say to all of you, I have had a wonderful day in Florida. I do not think I ever had a bad day in Florida. This is the first time I have ever been in Florida in my life that I have been sick, and I had a good day in spite of it, because, this morning, I went up to Orlando to the Democratic State Convention. Now, I attended the Democratic State Convention in Florida in 1981 and in 1983 and in 1987, when I was just a Governor and a friend of your Governor's, and they were good enough to invite me. And I always had a big time, and Hillary had two brothers living down here then, and I was always looking for a reason to come and always learning about what was going on in Florida, and thinking, this is the beginning of what will happen in America. So, anyway, 8 years ago this week, 8 years ago, in December of 1991 Hillary and I came down to the Florida Democratic Convention, which was holding the first election of the primary season, a straw poll. I was running fifth in the country in the primaries at the time, but I got over 50 percent in the Florida Democratic straw poll. And it is been all uphill ever since, thanks to all of you, and I am very grateful. Now, I am glad to be here tonight with Alcee Hastings, and I will tell you why and ask you to help Elaine Bloom. Because I know the President sometimes gets the blame when things go wrong, but the President also gets the credit when things go right. And you heard Alcee talking about all those good things.

Remarks at a Reception for Representative Alcee L. Hastings in Fort Lauderdale, Florida


I want to run over them again in a minute for you, but the good things that have happened here to the American people would not have happened had I not had the support of the Democrats in Congress, particularly those that were really strongwilled and outspoken, that had influenced the others, and Alcee Hastings is such a leader in the United States Congress. And I want you to know that his influence extends beyond the Florida delegation, beyond the Congressional Black Caucus, because he is an intelligent man; because he cares about the rest of the world; because he believes that you can care about the education of our children and saving Medicare and Social Security for our seniors and protecting the Florida environment, and still care about decency and humanity all around the world and the end of not only racism at home but racial and ethnic and religious hatred all around the world. He is one of the most exceptional people in the House of Representatives, and I want you to help him. Now, I am going to give a short speech so I do not lose my voice, but you are more likely to remember it. I have got 14 months left, and then you are going to have an election to chart America's course in a new millennium. Here is what I want to say to you about it. We just passed the first budget of the 21st century. We got 100,000 teachers for smaller classes in the early grades. We got 50,000 more police to keep the crime rate coming down. We got 60,000 more housing vouchers to help poor people move from welfare to work. We have doubled the number of after-school programs to help kids stay in school and learning and out of trouble. We gave States for the first time help to help turn around or shut down schools that are failing our children, because all our schools can do better. We moved forward on the environment. We paid our dues to the U.N. We gave debt relief to the very poorest countries in the world. the Patients' Bill of Rights, the minimum wage increase, the hate crimes legislation. We had a great year in foreign policy. We saw the completion of the Irish peace process this year, and I am very happy about that. And just last week, I announced that, earlier this week, a couple of days ago, that next week Israel and Syria will resume their peace negotiations in Washington, DC, in a couple of days. So we are going to keep working to the last hour of the last day.


But I want you to step back a minute, because what happens in these congressional elections, whether Bill Nelson gets elected United States Senator from Florida, whether Elaine Bloom gets elected United States Representative from Florida, whether we hold the White House, and I believe we will, but it all depends on, I wish I could be more whoop-dee-doo. It all depends on what the voters think the election is about. Now, I want you to remember this. We put in our economic program in 1993, and the Vice President broke the tie in the Congress, and the Republicans said it would be a disaster. Now, we have 20 million jobs, the longest peacetime expansion in history, the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 32 years, the lowest poverty rates in 20 years, the lowest African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates ever recorded, the lowest female unemployment rate in 40 years. The second thing I want to say is, we have the lowest crime rate in 25 years; 90 percent of our kids immunized against serious childhood diseases for the first time in history; over 2 million more kids covered under the Children's Health Insurance Program. We have cleaned up 3 times as many toxic waste dumps as the predecessor administrations, both of them. And we now have the lowest output of waste that is terribly damaging to the environment that we have had in 20 years. Twenty years ago we had 50 million fewer people. We have had 150,000 young people serve this country in AmeriCorps, 7 million young people take advantage of the HOPE scholarship to go on to community college and to other college education. We have had 10 million people get the benefit of the minimum wage, and over 20 million get the benefit of the family and medical leave law. But what I want to say, I will stay the course. I want you to stay the course. And then what I want you to do, wait, wait, what I want you to do is go out here and find your fellow Floridians who may not be Democrats, who may not be voters, and not only do I want you to stay the course; I want you to teach the course. You know, we had an idea that we ought to have a country with opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and a community of all Americans. And almost everything that we fought for we were opposed by the leaders of the other party. And I have been willing to work with them.


And when we have worked with them, I have always given them credit for what they have done. But I think we have proved that we are a stronger country when we go forward together across racial lines. So what are they trying to give you in Florida? Connerly wants to come here and try to abolish affirmative action when we have proved that going forward with affirmative action in the right way strengthens the economy and the society and makes us all better off. So I want you to think about that. So the first thing I want you to tell folks is it is not like we do not have evidence here. I will never forget how the NRA went after Congressmen in States like Florida after we passed the Brady bill and I signed it, because my predecessor vetoed it. And they told the awfulest stories about how people are going to lose their guns. Well, 470,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers did lose their handguns, but not a single Florida hunter missed a day of hunting season because of it. They did not tell the truth about that. This is a safer country because of it. What is the election about? What is the election about? So what is the election about? It is about what we are going to do with that. What do we propose to do with our prosperity? The Republicans gave us their answer in the last session of Congress when they passed a tax cut so large it would have prohibited us from saving Social Security and Medicare and prohibited us from ever paying down the national debt. But when I vetoed it, the American people supported me, and Alcee supported me, and the Democrats in Congress supported me because they said, No, no, no, that is not what we are going to do with our prosperity. What do we want America to look like in 10, 20, and 30 years? How are we going to build the America of our dreams for our children? And let me just tell you what I think they are. Number one, you have got to deal with the aging of America. You have got to save Social Security and Medicare for the baby boom generation, add a prescription drug benefit, let people over 55 buy into Medicare if they do not have health insurance. We have got to do this. We have got to do this. I am telling you, every baby boomer I know is plagued by the thought that our retirement will burden our children and their ability to raise our grandchildren.


Now, we have got the money now, folks, to take the Social Security Trust Fund out beyond the life of the baby boom generation, and we ought to do it. Look at the young people that are here, 18 to 23 or 24, the young people in that age group. Do you really think when they get old enough to have their children and they start raising families that they should be burdened in what they can do for their children because they are having to take care of us, their parents, when there is no earthly excuse for it? All we have to do is take the savings that we get from paying down the debt with the Social Security surplus and put those interest savings into the Trust Fund, and it will take it out beyond the life of the baby boom generation, no controversy, no heat, no nothing. We ought to do it, and we ought to do it next year. The second thing we ought to do is to deal with the children of America. Ironically, we are growing at both ends, in our elderly and in our children. We have got the largest number of school children in our schools in our history. They are the most racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse school children in our history, and every one of them deserves a world-class education, and we ought to give it to them. The third thing we ought to do is take a different approach to crime. Now, you all clapped when I said we had the lowest crime rate in 25 years; we have got the lowest murder rate in 31 years. They thought the crime rate went in one direction only, up. I propose that in the year 2000 we have a decent goal. We say we are going to keep working till America is the safest big country in the world. I believe there are lots of other things I could say, and I am trying to save the Everglades, you know, and I just want to say this one thing about the environment. The young people here, if they are going to have the kind of America they deserve, are going to have to accept the fact that you can improve the environment and grow the economy at the same time. We have set aside more land than any administration except those of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt. We have cleaned up all these dumps. Let me tell you something. We better start thinking that we should be improving the environment as we grow the economy, not destroying the environment as we grow the economy. I will just give you one other.


You ought to go home tonight and ask yourself what you think the big challenges are. But I will tell you, if somebody said to me tonight, Well, ENTITY, you do not have 14 more months; you have got to leave tomorrow. But I am the genie, and I will give you one wish. You can do anything for America you want, but only one. What I would choose is for us to be one America, across all the lines that divide us, for two reasons. he had an Asian and somebody who worked for the Federal Government; James Byrd gets dragged to death in Texas; Matthew Shepard gets put on a rack. Yesterday, all over America, there were gripping pictures of these two young soldiers, one 21, one 18. The 21-year-old, a gay soldier who the 18-year-old beat to death with a baseball bat. And I thought to myself, looking at these two young boys, keep in mind, I look at them in a certain way not only because they are young enough to be my own sons, but because I have a lot of your sons under my command. Those young men, when they put on that uniform, both of them, when they put on that uniform, they basically took an oath that says, If Bill Clinton tells me to, I will go halfway around the world to fight and die. That is what it means. That is what it means. They make the same pledge. They have got their whole lives before them. One of them is dead, and the other one's life is ruined. And frankly, I ached for both of them. And the young boy that murdered the other one because he was gay, he was not born feeling that way; somebody taught him to do that. So that is the last thing I want to tell you. get rid of the debt; give people the same incentives to invest in poor areas we give them to invest in poor areas in Latin America and Asia and Africa; give people empowerment, and they will do the job. That is also the way we can have the biggest influence in resolving the crisis in the Middle East, in Kosovo, in Bosnia, the tribal warfare in Africa, you name it. This old world is still burdened down with people that cannot get along without hating somebody who is different from them.


Well, first of all, let me say thank you for the welcome. I thank the members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who are here and other Members of Congress and the people from our administration who are here. I want to thank Jimmy Smits and Felix Sanchez. And I want to congratulate your honorees, Sara Martinez Tucker and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, for 25 years of service. I want to say a special word of appreciation to all the Latinos who have been part of our administration, including Maria Echaveste, Mickey Ibarra, Brian Barretto, Aida Alvarez, Bill Richardson, and all the others. Let me say, I am sorry I am not in proper attire tonight. But Jimmy Smits called me this afternoon, and I only had two other things I was supposed to do, and so he said I had to show. And I want you to know I am here in spite of the fact that Jimmy Smits called me. And I will tell you why. So, right before I was here, I went over to the Kennedy Center. And there is a magnificent event at the Kennedy Center that Kerry Kennedy Cuomo is having about her book on human rights activists, and artists from all over our country and human rights heroes from all over the world are over there tonight. And so, I went from there to a book party for my friend Paul Begala. And I am on my way over here, and everybody wanted to know where I was going. And this NBC television reporter said, Jimmy Smits, that is the best looking man I ever saw in my life. So, I said, Well, what can I tell you? I have been to war for 8 years now, and I do not look very good anymore. He will never forgive me for embarrassing him like that. I want to say something seriously. Felix, I appreciate what you have done so much with this foundation. And I want to say, I made fun of Jimmy Smits tonight, but I want you to know that becoming a friend of his has been one of the real joys of being ENTITY. He has been so kind to my wife and to me, to our family. He is been to the White House many times, and he is always been there for a good cause. And I hope you will forgive me for pulling your leg tonight, Jimmy, but I will never forget you for being our friend. I want to thank the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts for giving young people a chance.

Remarks to the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts


From the silver screen to the Broadway stage, kids with talent and dreams need a chance. That is what we have tried to do for 8 years now for all America's children. And the Vice ENTITY and I owe those of you who have done so much to help us do that a profound debt of gratitude, and I thank you. Tonight I came mostly just to do that, just to say thank you, for all you do for the arts, for all you do for the Hispanic community, and for all you have done to help America move forward in the last 8 years. We now have the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate we have ever recorded, the lowest Hispanic poverty rate in a generation, a million new homeowners in the last 6 years. The earned-income tax credit has been doubled, and it is lifted over a million Hispanics out of poverty. The minimum wage helped 1.6 million Hispanic workers, and it is time to raise it again and help more. The Hispanic Education Action Plan to encourage Hispanic youth to stay in school and go to college, along with our scholarship initiatives and other things, have contributed to the fact that the college-going rate among Hispanic young people is up over 50 percent in the last 7 years. And-listen to this-a report which was issued last week said there has been a 500 percent increase in the number of Hispanic students taking advanced placement courses in high school to prepare for college. Under the Vice ENTITY's leadership, we have reduced the naturalization backlog at INS. And under Aida Alvarez's leadership, loans to Hispanic entrepreneurs by the SBA have increased by 250 percent. We have all been enriched by your work. And I know that because of your work, we will have more great singers, more great writers, more great actors and actresses. I know we have got a long way to go, too, because still Latino characters are only about 3 percent of those that appear on prime-time television. I just left Rita Moreno, and I told her that I enjoyed watching her as a nun on her television series. And we were laughing about it. And I think that you will see, if you keep working, though, more and more of our movies and our television shows and our Broadway shows reflecting the rich diversity of America. I have said on many occasions, and I will just say one more time tonight, that if I could have only one wish for America, believe it or not, it would not be for a continued unbroken economic prosperity.


It would be that somehow we would find the wisdom to live together as brothers and sisters, to truly be one America across all the lines that divide us. And to-just sort of a little picture of how fast America has changed; you may see the advertisements today for-they are on television now-for Denzel Washington's new movie about the integration of T.C. Williams High School over in Alexandria, Virginia, and its football team, which occurred-what-almost 40 years ago, not such a long time ago once you have reached my age, anyway. Now, a little over three decades later, that high school is in a school district which has students from over 180 different racial and ethnic groups, parents speaking over 100 different native languages. It is the most diverse school district in America. And I think it is sort of fitting that this movie, coming out in the new millennium, talks about something that to most of these kids is ancient history, that we hope they will never forget. Can we figure out a way to give them all a world-class education, with all their diversity? Can we figure out a way to make sure that every single child, every family, every faith in America is profoundly proud of its roots, understands them, and yet believes deep in the core of being that our common humanity is even more important than our unique characteristics? Not so long ago, a number of you in this room came to the White House for a showing of Mi Familia, the movie. Remember, you saw it; you were there. And so I was thinking about that tonight and feeling sort of nostalgic. And I think the central question that all of us have to ask ourselves, both within and beyond our borders now, is who is in our family anyway? There is an astonishing new book out, been out a few months, by a man named Robert Wright, called Non Zero, kind of a weird title unless you are familiar with game theory. But in game theory, a zero-sum game is one where, in order for one person to win, somebody has to lose. A non-zero-sum game is a game in which you can win, and the person you are playing with can win, as well.


Today I am pleased to announce that after months of tough and thoughtful negotiations, I think we have an historic, I know we have historic economic framework. It is a framework that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people. 17 Nobel Prize winners and economics have said it will lower the inflationary pressures on the economy. And over the next 10 years, it will not add to the deficit at all. It will actually reduce the deficit, according to the economists. I want to thank my colleagues in the Congress for their leadership. We spent hours, and hours, and hours over months and months working on this. No one got everything they wanted, including me. And that is what I ran on. I have long said compromise and consensus are the only way to get big things done in a democracy. Important things done for the country. I know how deeply people feel about the things that they fight for. But this framework includes historic investments in our nation and in our people. Any single element of this framework would fundamentally be viewed as a fundamental change in America. I will have more to say after I return from the critical meetings in Europe this week, but for now let me lay out a few points. First we face, and I apologize for saying this again, we face an inflection point as a nation. For most of the 20th century we led the world by a significant margin because we invested in our people. We did not just build an interstate highway system, we built a highway to the sky. We invested to win the Space Race, and we won. We were also among the first to provide access to free education for all Americans, beginning back in the late 18 hundreds. That decision alone to invest in our children and their families was a major part of why we were able to lead the world for much of the 20th century. But somewhere along the way we stopped investing in ourselves, investing in people. America is still the largest economy in the world. We still own the most productive workers and the most innovative minds in the world. But we risk losing our edge as a nation. Our infrastructure used to be rated the best in the world. Today, according to the World Economic Forum, we ranked 13th in the world. We used to lead the world in educational achievement. Now the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks America 35th out of the 37 major countries when it comes to investing in early childhood education and care.

Joe Biden Outlines Social & Climate Spending Bill Speech Transcript


We cannot be competitive in the 21st century global economy if we continue this slide. That is what I have said all along. We need to build America from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down with the trickle-down economics that is always failed us. I cannot think of a single time when the middle class has done well that the wealthy have not done very well. I can think of many times, including now, when the wealthy, the super wealthy do very well, and the middle class do not do well. That is why I proposed the investments congress is now considering in two critical pieces of legislation. Positions I ran on as president, positions I announced when I laid out in a joint session of Congress what my economic agenda was. These are not about left versus right, or moderate versus progressive, or anything else that pits Americans against one another. This is about competitiveness versus complacency. It is about expanding opportunity, not opportunity denied. It is about leading the world or letting the world pass us by. Today, with my democratic colleagues, we have a framework for my Build Back Better Initiative. And here is how it will fundamentally change the lives of millions of people for the better. Millions of you are in the so-called Sandwich Generation, who feel financially squeezed by raising a child and caring for an aging parent. About 820,000 seniors in America, and people with disabilities, have applied for Medicaid, and they are on a waiting list right now to get home care. They need some help. They do not have be kicked out of their homes, but they need a little help getting around. Having their meals made occasionally for them. They do not want to put them in nursing homes. Not because of the cost, but because it is a matter of dignity. They want to stay in their homes. You are just looking for an answer so your parents can keep living independently with dignity. For millions of families in America this, this issue, is the most important issue they are facing. So here is what we are going to do. We are going to expand services for seniors so families can get help from well-trained, well-paid professionals to help them take care of their parents at home. To cook meals for them, to get their groceries for them, to help them get around, to help them live in their own home with the dignity they deserve to be afforded.


Quite frankly, what we found is that this is more popular, or as popular as anything else we are proposing. Because the American people understand the need. It is a matter of dignity and pride for our parents. 30 years ago, we ranked number seven among the advanced economies in the world as a share of women working. Today there are nearly two million women in America not working today simply because they cannot afford childcare. Typical family spends about $11,000 a year on childcare, some states it is $14,500 a year per-child. We are going to make sure nearly all families earning less than $300,000 a year will pay no more than 7% of their income for childcare. And for a family making a hundred thousand dollars a year, that will save them more than $5,000 in childcare. This is a fundamental game-changer for families and for our economy. As more parents, especially women, can get back to work and work in the workforce. I am looking at a lot of significant press people in front of me. A lot of them are working, working mothers. They know what it costs. I remember when I got to the Senate, I lost my wife and daughter in an accident. I started commuting 250 miles a day because I had my mom and my dad and my brother and my sister to help me take care of my kids because I could not afford childcare. And I was getting a serious salary, $42,000 a year. We have also extended the historic middle class tax cut. That is what I call it, middle class tax cut for parents. That is the expanded child tax credit we passed through the American Rescue Plan. What that means is, for folks at home, they are getting $300 a month for every child under the age of six, $250 for every child under the age of 18. We are extending that for another year. The money is already a life-changer for so many working families. This will help cut child poverty in half this year, according to experts. But that is not all it does, it changes the whole dynamic for working parents. In the past if you paid taxes and had a good income you could deduct, under the tax code, $2,000 per-child from the taxes you owed.


But how many families do you know are cashier or waiters, healthcare workers, who never out the benefit of the full tax credit because they did not have that much to deduct? So it either came off your tax bill or you did not get full credit. Why should, if somebody making $500,000 a year, or 150,000 or $200,000 a year, get to write it off their taxes? And the people who need the help even more, they do not have that much tax to pay. They do not get the benefit, and they have the same cost of raising their children. 80% of those left out were working parents who just did not make enough money. That is why in the American Rescue Plan we did not just expand the amount of the middle class tax cut, we also made it refundable. This framework will make it permanently refundable, making sure the families who need it get a full credit for it, in addition to those who are already getting full credit. They are going to make sure that every three and four-year-old child in America go to high-quality preschool. That is part of the legislation I just brought up to the Congress. Studies show that when we put three and four-year-olds in school, school, not daycare, school, we increase by up to 47% the chance that that child, no matter what their background, we will be able to earn a college degree. As my wife, Jill, who is in the back here always says, any country that out-educates us is going to out-compete us. We can finally take us from 12 years to 14 years of universal education in America. We also make investments in higher education, by increasing Pell Grants to help students from lower-income families attend community college and four-year schools. And we invest in historically black universities, colleges, universities, HBCUs, minority-serving institutions and tribal colleges, to make sure every young student has a shot at a good-paying job in the future. This framework extends tax credits to lower premiums for folks who are in the Affordable Care Act for another three years. For 4 million folks in the 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid, all the rest have, this framework will enable you to get affordable coverage. And Medicare will now cover the cost of hearing aids and hearing checkups. This framework also makes the most significant investment to deal with the climate crisis ever, ever happened.


Beyond any other advanced nation in the world, over a billion metric tons of emission reductions, at least 10 times bigger on climate than any bill that has ever passed before, and enough to position us for a 50 to 52% emission reductions by the year 2030. And we will do it in ways that grow the domestic industries, create good-paying union jobs, address long-standing environmental injustices as well. Tax credit to help people do things like weatherize their homes so they lose less energy. Install solar panels and develop clean energy products, and help businesses produce more clean energy. And when paired with the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we will truly transform this nation. But passenger rail and freight rail and public transit, it is going to take hundreds of thousands of vehicles off the road, saving millions of barrels of oil. Everybody knows, all the studies show, if you can get from point A to point B on electric rail, you will not drive your car. You will take the rail service. We also learned that in most major cities in America, minority populations, the jobs they used to have in town, they are now out of town. Roughly 60% of the folks, they do not have vehicles. So they need to have a means to get out of town to their jobs, to be on time. This will do that, like it did for Detroit. 95% of the 840,000 school buses in America run on diesel. Every day more than 25 million children and thousands of bus drivers breathe polluted air on the way to and from school from the diesel exhaust. We are going to replace thousands of these with electric school buses that have big batteries underneath, and that are good for the climate. I went down to one of the manufacturing facilities, saw them, got in one, drive them. They do not expend any, they do not expend any pollution into the air. We will build out the first ever national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations all across the country. So when you buy an electric vehicle, and you get credit for buying it, you buy electric vehicle, you go all the way across America on a single tank of gas, figuratively speaking. It is not gas, you plug it in. We are going to get off the sidelines on manufacturing solar panels and wind farms and electric vehicles, with targeted manufacturing credits. You manufacture, you get a credit for doing it. These will help grow the supply chains in communities too often left behind.


And we are going to reward countries for paying good wages, for companies I should say, for good wages and for sourcing their materials from here in the United States. That means tens of millions of panels and turbines, doubling the number of electric vehicles we have on the road within just three years. We will be able to sell and export these products and technologies to the rest of the world, and creating thousands more jobs because we are, once again, going to be the innovators. We will also make historic investments in environmental cleanup and remediation. That means putting people to work in good-paying jobs at prevailing wage. Capping hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands of abandoned wells and gas wells, oil and gas wells, that need to be capped because they are leaking things that hurt the air. Putting a stop to the methane leaks and in the pipelines, protecting the health of our communities, it is a big deal. And we will build up our resilience for the next super storm, drought, wildfires, and hurricanes that represent a blinking code red for America and the world. Last year alone, these types of extreme weather events you have all been covering, and you have all witnessed, and some of you have been caught in the middle of, have caused $99 billion in damage to the United States within the last year. And we are not spending any money to deal with this? I met in Pittsburgh, I met an IBW electrical worker who climbs up in those power lines in the middle of the storm to try to put transformers in to keep the lights on when storms hit. He calls himself a hundred percent union guy. As he said, I quote, I do not want my kids growing up in a world where the threat of climate change hangs over their heads. Folks, we all have that obligation. The bipartisan infrastructure bill was also the most significant investment since we built the interstate highway system and won the space race decades ago. This is about rebuilding the arteries of our economy. Across the country now there are 45,000 bridges, and 173 thousand miles of roads, that are in poor condition. Some of the bridges you do not even take a chance of going across, they have shut down. They cannot be built back to the same standard because the weather's not going to get a lot better. We just got to keep it from getting a heck of a lot worse.


No one should have to hold their breath as they cross a rundown bridge or a dangerous intersection in their hometown. We are going to put hard-working Americans on the job to bring our infrastructure up to speed. Jobs you can raise the family on. And my dad would say, you could have a little breathing room. Jobs replacing lead water pipes so families can drink clean water, improving the health of our children and putting plumbers and pipe-fitters to work. Jobs laying thousands of miles of transmission lines to build a modern energy grid. Jobs making a high-speed internet affordable and available everywhere, in rural and urban America. Particularly including the 35% of rural America that goes without it right now. This pandemic has made clear the need for affordable and available high-speed internet. The idea of a parent having to put their kids in the car for virtual learning, drive and sit in the McDonald's parking lot so the child can access the internet when school is taught virtually, is not only unnecessary, it is just wrong. They do not add a single penny to the deficit. They do not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. In fact, they reduced the deficit, here is how; I do not want to punish anyone's success, I am a capitalist. I want everyone to be able to, if they want to be a millionaire or billionaire, to be able to seek their goal. But all I am asking is, pay your fair share. And right now, many are paying virtually nothing. Last year the 55 most profitable corporations in America, 55 of them, paid zero, zero, in federal income tax on about $40 billion in profit. If they report big profits to their shareholders, they should be paying taxes. That is why the Build Back Better framework will have a 15% minimum on the largest corporations, a minimum tax of 15%. The top 1% of the wealthiest Americans evade, it is estimated by the experts, $160 billion a year in federal taxes. We are going to change that. I want to emphasize what I said from the beginning. Under my plans, if you earn less than $400,000, you will not pay a single penny more in federal taxes. In fact, these bills continue cutting taxes for middle class. Let me close with this. For much too long, working people of this nation in the middle class of this country have been dealt out of the American deal. It is time to deal them back in.


Thank you both for the work you have done on this. I thank the Commission members for their willingness to serve, those who are here and a few who could not be here with us today. And I thank all of you here in this audience for your interest in this profoundly important matter. The Advisory Commission that I announced today will help to chart our way through a time of profound change in health care. to find ways to ensure quality and to ensure that the rights of consumers in health care are protected. Since I took office, we have been committed to improving our health care system, to making it more affordable, more accessible, while preserving its high quality. You have heard Secretary Shalala mention some of the things we have done together. We have worked with States to expand Medicaid to more than 2 million Americans who previously had no insurance. We reached across party lines to enact the Kassebaum-Kennedy law that provides that working families will not lose their insurance when they change jobs, increased the health care tax deduction for 3 million self-employed Americans. And now in our budget plan, we have funds sufficiently targeted to extend coverage to as many as half of our 10 million American children who still do not have medical coverage. We have worked to constrain costs. Just yesterday, I announced a new effort to combat the multibillion dollar problem of fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. Our balanced budget proposal also strengthens Medicare through savings and overdue structural reforms. Of course, we are not alone in this. The private sector has found ways to rein in costs, sometimes dramatically. And in many cases, changes in the health care delivery system have, frankly, also improved its quality. For example, the growing recognition of the value of preventive care, such as mammography screening, is saving and extending lives and the quality of life. Step by step we have been working to expand access to health care, and today we take the next step. In this time of transition, many Americans worry that lower costs mean lower quality and less attention to their rights. On balance, however, managed health care plans, HMO's, PPO's, and others, give patients good care and greater choice at lower cost. Still, we must make sure that these changes do not keep health professionals from offering the best and the most medically appropriate services to their patients. Managed care managed well can be the best deal for our families.

Remarks on the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry


Whether they have traditional health care or managed care, none of our people should ever have inferior care. I am proud that the Medicare and Medicaid programs have taken the lead in responding to the quality concerns of both patients and health care providers, as Secretary Shalala has just described. But we are learning the defining, measuring, and enforcing quality is far from a simple task. They require thoughtful study. That is why I decided late last year to establish the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry. Today I am happy to introduce the members of that Commission to the American people. They represent consumers, business, labor, health care providers, insurers, managed care plans, State and local governments, health care quality experts. Their specialties are wide-ranging, including care for children, the elderly, women, people with disabilities, mental illness, or ENTITY. This Commission includes some of the best health care policy minds in our Nation and a lot of people with hands-on experience. Today, to assure that they get busy right away, I am charging the Commission to develop a consumer bill of rights so that health care patients get the information and care they need when they need it. Let us assure that patients and their families-first, that the health care professionals who are treating them are free to provide the best medical advice available; second, that their providers are not subject to inappropriate financial incentives to limit care; third, that our sickest and most vulnerable patients, frequently the elderly and people with disabilities, are receiving the best medical care for their unique needs; fourth, that consumers have access to simple and fair procedures for resolving health care coverage disputes with plans; fifth, and perhaps most important, that consumers have basic information about their rights and responsibilities, about the plans-the benefits the plans offer, about how to access the health care they need, and about the quality of their providers and their health care plans. I am delighted that the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Labor will take on the task of being the Commission's Cochairs. I look forward to reviewing their first report at the end of the year and their final report next March. The need for this Commission is real. It will give us a roadmap to help us make our way through the time of rapid change we now see in our health care system. And again, let me say, I want to thank them for their commitment to serve.


Good morning, everyone, it is a pleasure for us to be here with you In a few minutes we will have to leave Madrid after too short a visit and continue our journey to Portugal, and then later on this evening we will be back in Washington. It is impossible for a President to come to Madrid without remembering our first emissary to the great nation of Spain. While our country was still fighting for its own independence in 1777, the father of the Foreign Service came here to represent our great country. He was a diplomat of great ability, an author, a scientist, a thinker who was one of the great Americans of all times. I refer, of course, to Benjamin Franklin, who came here to marshal support for our Nation in a time of war, so that we might later enjoy blessings of peace. He exemplified in his own life what you exemplify in yours the ability and the dedication and the courage required in times of peace, through sound diplomacy accurately representing what our Nation is, to prevent or to reduce the prospects of war. We have a lot of wonderful people in our Foreign Service around the world. We have great Ambassadors who serve us. There is none that I know of in any post in the world more accomplished and more competent and more effective than Terence Todman, and I am very deeply grateful to him and to Doris for what they do. I first knew him, during the few months when I began to be President, as an Assistant Secretary in charge of the entire region of Latin America. As you well know, this is a very important post, to be responsible for a whole region of the world. But because of the significance which we attached to Spain and the rapid evolution that Spain has demonstrated to the entire world in shifting toward a completely democratic government, we believed that this fine man should be stationed here. He agreed with the significance of this task, and his transfer to Spain was done with his full agreement and approval. accurately and fruitfully to represent the greatest nation on Earth, the United States of America, in a great nation, an ally and a friend, the nation of Spain. We have a lot of interests here, a lot of common commitments, a lot of common goals and ideals and principles.

Remarks to Embassy Employees and Members of the American Community in Madrid, Spain


I have had a very fruitful period of discussions, both with King Juan Carlos and his beautiful wife and also, of course, with the Prime Minister, the President, and with the members of the Cabinet and the opposition parties, to try to assess personally, as best I could here in Spain, what we might do even to improve already excellent relationships. I understand that very well. In a way, I am part of the diplomatic corps of our country. Secretary Muskie accompanied me on the first part of our trip to Rome and to Venice, and then he went to Ankara in Turkey to meet with the Foreign Ministers of the European nations, and then went to Kuala Lumpur to meet with the Foreign Ministers and leaders of the ASEAN nations in Southeast Asia. This constant effort to project the good side of our country and to learn how best to deal with our friends and to minimize the impact of potential adversaries is an Important part of your life and mine. Your life is not only a difficult and dedicated one but also, at times, dangerous. In the last 6 years, for instance, four American Ambassadors have been killed in the line of duty. And I can never look into the faces of anyone who serves in the Foreign Service without thinking about the 53 American hostages, who are innocent, who are held as a horrible act of international terrorism, condoned and supported by the official Government of Iran. This problem is constantly on my mind, and I never meet with a foreign leader or in a group of foreign leaders without very early raising this problem with them, urging them to do everything they possibly can, through diplomatic or private channels, to hasten the day when these 53 brave Americans will be free and will be back home where they belong. Do not ever forget how deeply grateful the American people are to you for the fine service that you render here. I know that in addition to the difficulties and the challenge and sometimes the danger in some countries, there is also a great sense of gratitude that you can not only serve a great country but live in a foreign country which is also great and pleasant and exciting and a friend. I want to add my personal thanks also to the citizens of Spain who work with you here in all the multitudinous duties of the American Embassy. On behalf of 220 million Americans who do not have the opportunity to come and stay in Spain, let me say that all of us are deeply grateful to you and wish for you God's greatest blessings.


Well, I just completed a meeting with the Cabinet that is directly in charge of dealing with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. From the beginning, we activated 15 agencies for what is now the largest national response ever to an environmental disaster. And what we wanted to do was make sure that every agency was coordinating and that there was clarity about how we are going to proceed in the coming months. Now, we have gotten reports that have been confirmed by our independent scientists that the top-hat mechanism that was put in place is beginning to capture some of the oil. We are still trying to get a better determination as to how much it is capturing, and we are pushing BP very hard to make sure that all the facilities are available so that as the oil is being captured, it is also being separated properly, that there are receptacles for that oil to go, that we have thought through contingencies in case there is an emergency or a hurricane so that these mechanisms are not disrupted, and that there is a lot of redundancy built in. Even if we are successful in containing some or much of this oil, we are not going to get this problem completely solved until we actually have the relief well completed, and that is going to take a couple of more months. We also know that there is already a lot of oil that is been released and that there is going to be more oil released no matter how successful this containment effort is. And that is why it is so important for us to continue to put every asset that we have--boom, skimmers, vessels, hiring local folks and local fishermen with their facilities, equipping them with skimmers--getting every asset that we have out there to make sure that we are minimizing the amount of oil that is actually coming to shore. Now, there are a number of other issues that were raised during this meeting that I just want to touch on. Number one, when I was down in the Gulf on Friday, meeting with fishermen and small-business owners, what is clear is that the economic impact of this disaster is going to be substantial and it is going to be ongoing. And as I said on Friday--and I want to repeat--I do not want to see BP nickel-and-diming these businesses that are having a very tough time.

Remarks Following a Cabinet Meeting


Now, we have got the SBA in there helping to provide bridge loans, and we have got the Department of Commerce helping businesses to prepare and document the damages that they are experiencing. But what we also need is BP being quick and responsive to the needs of these local communities. We have individuals who have been assigned specifically to ride herd on BP, to make sure that that is happening. We want the people who are in charge of BP's claims process to be meeting with us on a regular basis. But we are going to insist that that money flows quickly, in a timely basis, so that you do not have a shrimp processor or a fisherman who is going out of business before BP finally makes up its mind as to whether or not it is going to pay out. And that is going to be one of our top priorities, because we know that no matter how successful we are over the next few weeks in some of the containment efforts, the damages are still going to be there. The second thing we talked about quite a bit is the issue of the health of workers who are out there dealing with this spill. So far, we have seen that onshore, we are not seeing huge elevations in toxins in the air or in the water. But that may not be the case out where people are actually doing the work. And we have got to make sure that we are providing all the protections that are necessary. We have put processes in place to make sure that workers out there are getting the equipment and the training they need to protect themselves and their health. But this is something that we are going to have to continue to monitor, because there are a lot of workers out there, and increasingly, we are starting to get individuals who may not be experienced in oil cleanup, because we are trying to get an all-hands-on-deck process. Obviously, we are also monitoring very carefully the impact to people who are not working out there, and that is where the Environmental Protection Agency is doing constant monitoring of the air and the water quality. And we are also doing testing on the seafood to make sure that toxins are not being introduced into the overall population. A couple of other points I just want to make.

Remarks Following a Cabinet Meeting


Lubchenco of NOAA reported on convening a scientific conference to make sure that on issues like the plume that is been reported in the news and other questions about how large is this, what kind of damage do we anticipate, et cetera, that we have full transparency, that the information is out there, that it is subject to scientific review so that nobody has any surprises. And what we are going to continue to strive for is complete transparency in real time so that as we get information, the public as a whole gets information, academics, scientists, researchers get this information in what is going to be a fluid and evolving process. Let me just make one final point, and I think this was something that was emphasized by everybody here, and it is something that I want to say to the American people. It may take some time, and it is going to take a whole lot of effort. There is going to be damage done to the Gulf Coast, and there is going to be economic damages that we have got to make sure BP is responsible for and compensates people for. But the one thing I am absolutely confident about is that, as we have before, we will get through this crisis. And it--one of the things that I wanted to make sure we understand is that not only are we going to control the damages to the Gulf Coast, but we want to actually use this as an opportunity to reexamine and work with States and local communities to restore the coast in ways that actually enhance the livelihoods and the quality of life for people in that area. It is going to take some time. These are resilient people down on the Gulf Coast. I had a chance to talk to them, and they have gone through all kinds of stuff over the last 50, 100 years, and they bounce back. They are going to need help from the entire country. They are going to need constant, vigilant attention from this administration. That is what they are going to get. But we are going to be--we are confident that not only are we going to be able to get past this immediate crisis, but we are going to be focusing our attention on making sure that the coast fully recovers and that eventually it comes back even stronger than it was before this crisis.

Remarks Following a Cabinet Meeting


I am very proud that I could be here with you today. I can assure you that the people of the United States share my pride in what American Samoa has done to prove that destiny is really what we make it. This island--with a population of only 22,000--has become the symbol of what many large nations may achieve for their people. It has become a showplace for progress, and a proving ground of methods to improve the lives of our fellow human beings. And, along the way, American Samoa has taken the term self-help out of the bureaucrats' dictionary and made it a living language for their people. You have doubled the per-acre yield of your crops. You have sharply reduced the diseases that once plagued your island. And this month you will begin construction of the American Samoan Tropical Medical Center which will provide the finest hospital care in this part of the world. You have almost eliminated childhood malnutrition. You have recognized that education is the tidal force of our century, driving all else ahead of it. I am told that the pilot program of education which you have started may point the way to learning breakthroughs throughout the Pacific islands and Southeast Asia. Samoan children are learning twice as fast as they once did, and retaining what they learn. Surely from among them, one day, will come scientists and writers to give their talents to Samoa, to America, and to the world. One requirement for good and universal education is an inexpensive and readily available means of teaching children. Unhappily, the world has only a fraction of the teachers that it needs. Samoa has met this problem through educational television-which was pioneered here by your outstanding Governor, Rex Lee, and the very able Director of the United States Information Agency, Mr. Leonard Marks. Before Mr. Marks came out here recently to help inaugurate this educational television system, he came to me at the White House and talked to me about its great benefits at some length. Upon his return, he insisted that he come over, and he spent an entire evening reviewing what your hopes and achievements would be. Everyone now wants to study the job that you have done-UNESCO, the World Bank, New Guinea, New Zealand, India, and other countries around the world. This technique--which you are helping now to improve--has the power to spread the light of knowledge like wildfire, to spread it all across the wide areas of our earth.

Remarks Upon Arrival at Tafuna International Airport, Pago Pago, American Samoa


So I want to commend you on the stride that you have taken. We are most grateful for the voluntary action of the Samoan Legislature in voting to pay Federal income taxes. You are the only American territory voluntarily to take on this responsibility. Your taxes are growing with your economy. You paid about $200,000 in 1963-and yet you paid over a million dollars in 1965. At this rate, you may eliminate the deficit in the United States budget this year. An American editor, who used to have nothing to say about what we were doing in Samoa, recently wrote, Somewhere on earth there may be a more spectacular example of revolutionary change in an area and its people, but in years of roving the world's far corners, I have not seen it. All praise to you for that No, not quite all praise. Some of it must go to a man that you know better than you do any other American--your own very able Governor, Rex Lee. This year it was my pleasure to give him the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service--an award that is granted to only five individuals each year. I have no appropriate awards to confer upon the people of Samoa for their progress. But there must be great satisfaction and honor enough in contemplating what you have done in 3 years, where you are today, and where the works of progress will lead your children in generations to come. I hope that America may soon accomplish in her other Pacific island responsibilities the same achievements of Samoa. For no other corner of the world can be left untidy and ignored today. Where once the sailing clippers called rarely in a year, now the jet airliners touch down several times a week. The time is fast coming when there will be no such thing as a far corner of the earth. So I think this is the way that God intended it. I cannot believe He wanted man to be isolated, ever, from his neighbor. He did not seek that distance or race or religion or creed ever separate us from one another. At the table of need, we all find our place, and the greatest need of all today, I think, is for human fellowship and a sense of what each of us can do for the rest of us. This is my first visit to American Samoa. I have not been among you but just a moment.


President, in America we call this is bringing the press in out of the cold. You guys have to admit that. Anyway, I am glad to see you again after a successful summit we had, the Summit of the Americas, in June, and to be able to return a small amount of hospitality your family showed my wife Jill when she visited Quito over the spring. She enjoyed it so much I was not sure she was coming home. Today we are going to keep building on the progress we have made. Together, we have made historic strides on migration. And this afternoon we will discuss how we can deepen our security and our economic partnership even further than it is right now. That includes our new joint investment programs that address security needs for Ecuador's prison system, your justice sector, and your maritime security. And, Mr. President, since we both understand that working families are the backbone of both our economies, I look forward to discussing how we can keep delivering for those families under the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity. And, finally, I want to thank you for your moral leadership, your condemnation of Putin's brutal war against the Ukrainian people that continues in ways we have not seen for a generation. You and I are united not only in our values, but in our vision of the future, one that is both free and democratic. And in the new year, as Ecuador begins its term on the U.N. Security Council, I look forward to continuing to work together to make this vision a reality. And I want to thank you very much for making the effort to be here. The floor is yours. For me it is also a pleasure to here-to be here with you after our very nice visit together in Los Angeles and also after that very pleasant visit with you and your wife Jill in Quito. So, with-for us, this is a great opportunity to come here and to reaffirm the democratic freedom and human rights values that we share with the glorious people of the U.S. Without a doubt, yes, we have been allies for decades now. And I am here to reaffirm that spirit that we share among us as allies, too, in our fight for democracy, for peace, and for justice, not only in the region, but also to support your vision throughout the world. So we were the first country in Latin America to condemn the awful war from Russia into Ukraine. We believe in multilateralism, and we also believe in the rule of law.

Remarks Prior to a Meeting With President Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza of Ecuador


At midnight last night, for the second time in a month, the Republican Congress shut down the Federal Government in an effort to force through their unacceptable cuts in health care, education, and the environment. For weeks, my administration and the Republicans in Congress have been in serious negotiations over how to reach common ground on balancing the budget. A week ago, I forwarded to them a plan that would protect our principles and balance the budget in 7 years. I had hoped that this time would be different, that we were past the Republican threats to shut down the Government just to get their way. But yesterday, they broke off our talks. Unbelievably, they actually said that as a condition for our talks to continue, we had to agree right now to make deep and unconscionable cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. poor children, pregnant women, the disabled, seniors in nursing homes. They would let Medicare wither on the vine into a second-class system. Now, these things simply are not necessary to balance the budget. As I have said from the beginning, I very much want to work with Congress to get a balanced budget. After all, working with the previous Congress in my first 2 years as President, we cut the deficit I found when I became President in half. We reduced the size of the Federal Government by 200,000. We ought to finish the job. We should not leave a legacy of debt to our children, but neither should we leave the next generation a legacy of neglect. We have cut the deficit in half while continuing to invest in education, technology, research, the environment, Medicare, and Medicaid and cutting taxes on the most hard-pressed of our working people. That is what we ought to do in this budget plan. Now as far as shutting the Government down goes, this is not a result of our lack of agreement on a balanced budget plan; the two things have no connection. The Congress has failed to pass a budget for next year and the bills that would fund the agencies of Government on purpose. They have deliberately done this to force me to accept their long-term agenda of big cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment and a tax increase on working people. That is what is in their balanced budget plan. But it is not necessary to balance the budget. So for them to cause a shutdown, denying Americans the services their tax dollars support, as a tactic in the budget debate is wrong.

The President's Radio Address


I will not give in to the threat. Let me tell you why. I know you have been told that the winners and losers of this budget battle are all in Washington and it is all politics. America's children would bear the most pain from the sharp cuts proposed by the Republican Congress. health care they now have, schooling they can count on, school lunches, a safe place to live, or air and water we can be sure is safe to breathe and to drink. Just consider what would happen to Medicaid. For three decades, Medicaid has been a legal guarantee for millions who need medical care. It has been the primary source of health care for nearly one in five American children. And more than half of the children on Medicaid live in families with working parents. But the Republican plan repeals Medicaid's guarantees, and that spells disaster for families in the middle class who are caught unprepared. Medicaid helps millions of children who are disabled or who suffer from chronic illnesses or who have the ENTITY virus. But the Republican plan could pull this lifeline from millions of children. In education, the Republican plan eliminates Head Start for 180,000 preschoolers. It cuts our efforts to keep drugs and violence out of our schools. It undermines our efforts to help schools meet national standards of excellence for the first time. It kills the AmeriCorps national service program. It denies scholarships to more than 350,000 deserving college students and takes away the best student loan program available to young people-it lowers the cost and eases the terms of repayment. The Republican plan would raise taxes for over 7 million of our hardest pressed working families. Their budget cuts would leave children exposed to hazardous waste. And we know that pollution affects children more than it does adults. We want to clean up these sites, but the Republican cuts would limit what we can do. The Republican budget cuts are aimed squarely at our children. They will face larger classes and fewer Head Start programs. Ten million will live near toxic waste sites that will not be cleaned. Millions will be denied adequate medical care. And more than one million will be forced into poverty. That is no way to treat our children. Let them threaten to shut the Government down. It is not necessary to do this to balance the budget, and so I am not going to let them hurt our children and compromise their future.

The President's Radio Address


I appreciate you giving us a chance to share with you our strategy on how we are going to win the war against terror. It starts with assembling a good team, and I put together a fabulous administration. I picked a great Vice President in Dick Cheney. Some of you may know him. But I know him a man who gives solid advice, and he is got great judgment. And the Nation's lucky that he left the left his previous occupation to serve our country. I am also pleased to be joined by three members of my Cabinet who are all involved with shepherding through an economic stimulus plan through the United States Congress. Secretary Paul O'Neill is doing a fabulous job. I have got great confidence in Paul and his ability to sell to the American people and to the United States Congress that which we are trying to do to make sure our economy grows. And I want to thank you, Paul, for your service, as well. Bob Zoellick is traveling the world promoting free trade. I will talk a little bit about trade later on. But I want to thank his tireless efforts. One thing that we are all hopeful for is that we start a new round of WTO talks at Doha, Qatar. I just have come from China, as you know, and he preceded me there, and they were still talking about the Zoellick touch. And I want to thank Spence Abraham, as well, who is helping us shepherd a realistic energy plan through the United States Congress. We are at the beginning of what I view as a very long struggle against evil. We are not fighting a nation; we are not fighting a religion; we are fighting evil. And we have no choice but to prevail. We are fighting people that hate our values. They cannot stand what America stands for. And they really do not like the fact that we exist. And I want to assure you all that we will fight this fight on every front. We will use every resource we have. And there is no doubt in my time in my mind that in our time, we will prevail. And we are fighting this war on a variety of fronts. We have put together a vast coalition of nations to slowly but surely encircle those who would terrorize and to send the message that their actions will not stand. I really appreciate the hard work of Secretary of State Powell. He is working endlessly to not only keep a coalition together but to broaden it. We are fighting them on a financial front.

Remarks to Business, Trade, and Agricultural Leaders


We are choking off their money. We are seizing their assets. We will be relentless as we pursue their sources of financing. And I want to thank the Secretary of Treasury for leading that effort. We are sharing intelligence because in order to fight a war, the new war of the 21st century, we have got to know more about the enemy, where they try to hide, where they may try to strike next. And so we have got great cooperation with intelligence services from around the world, as well as great cooperation internally between the CIA and the FBI. The culture in our agencies have changed. We are now interested in preventing attack. We are now interested in finding those who may attack America and arrest them before they do. We have had over nearly 1,000 people have been detained in America and questioned about their motives and their intentions. The FBI is on full alert, and they take information garnered from around the world and share that information in a way that will make Americans proud. And we have also put our military into action. I have got great confidence in the American military. It says, if you harbor a terrorist, you are a terrorist. If you harbor anybody who has harmed America, you are just as guilty as those who have harmed our country. And therefore the Taliban Government, which we gave ample time to respond to reasonable demands, are now paying the price for harboring the Al Qaida organization, as they should. We are slowly but surely dismantling Taliban defenses, Taliban military installations, the Taliban command and control structure, all aimed at bringing the Al Qaida criminals to justice. It is the first battle in the war of terrorism. And with that patience and with that determination, we will eventually smoke them out of their holes and get them and bring them to justice. And that is exactly what the world demands, and that is what the United States will deliver. After all, history has basically said there would never be two fronts, one abroad and one in America. But we now have a second front on this war against terror here at home. We have been struck, obviously, on September the 11th, and we are being struck again. Anytime anybody puts anthrax in a letter, it is an act of terror. The press often ask me, Well, is this the is the evil one hiding from us in Afghanistan, the ones who have done this to America?


But we do know the evil one who hides thinks in ways that we cannot possibly think in America so destructive, such a low regard for human life. And anybody who puts anthrax, trying to kill American citizens, shares the same set of values. Whoever has done it shares that same value of evil that we saw on September the 11th. And we will find them and bring them to justice, as well. But we have got a strategy to fight the war on the homefront. As I mentioned, we are disrupting, as much as we possibly can, any possible attack on America. Every day I meet with the FBI Director and the Attorney General and Tom Ridge, who heads the Office of Homeland Security, to get a report on the activities that were taking place. We take every threat seriously. We respond to every piece of information we receive. As I mentioned, we have arrested or detained over 1,000 people here in America, to determine to find out what they know. And if they know something that is helpful, we will act on it. And we have got a great response mechanism in place. Today I mourned the lives of two who two postal officers who lost their life in the line of duty. But I can tell the American people that because of the hard work of many in our public health offices, I believe we have saved a lot of lives, too, by responding as quickly as we have. Today, right here in this room, I had the honor of signing a piece of antiterrorist legislation widely supported by Members of both parties in both Houses. It is needed legislation to help us do the job the American people expect, which is to protect the homeland. It is a two-front war, and it is a war we are going to win on both fronts. But make no mistake; the best way to make sure we protect our homeland is to succeed by bringing the terrorists abroad who try to strike us to justice. Now, there is another front on the war, as well, and that is our economy. And there is no question the terrorists want to cast a shadow of fear on the businesses of America. They understand how important our businesses are to our way of life. After all, the entrepreneurial spirit is strong in America. It is part of our culture. It is part of a hopeful society. And the more that can be disrupted, that spirit of commerce and enterprise, the more successful they think they will be.


In all our wars, the productive power of the economy has been one of our Nation's great advantages. Obviously, we took a huge hit at the financial center of our country, in New York City. Our transportation system has been severely disrupted, which has, in turn, affected hotels and people who work in hotels. This administration is deeply concerned about those who have lost jobs. And we know there are a lot of Americans who hurt, and we hurt for them. And we are going to work with Congress to take the appropriate actions. I also know that some in this room have made a tough economic decision by delaying any layoffs or have chosen not to lay off workers, and I applaud you for that. And I thank you for making that decision, on behalf of the workers in America. I believe it is the right thing to do during this national emergency. We must understand that our job is to help restore confidence in the future of the country in a way that is wise and sound. But the vitality of our economy depends upon the willingness of Americans to spend and for Americans to start new businesses to purchase new equipment and to invest in the future of this country. And I understand that. And we are taking practical steps, and let me share some of those with you. We are supporting American aviation with money and loans, to make sure the planes fly. We are also beefing up security at our airports, to make sure people feel safe in flying. And we are working with Congress to get a long-term law passed that will say to the American consumer and the American flyer, this Government is doing everything in our power to secure the airways on your behalf. As I mentioned, we are we have spent money in a supplemental to rebuild New York City and the Pentagon. We have got SBA, the Small Business Administration, helping small businesses in the areas impacted by the attacks from the evil ones. We are paying for improved security at our post offices. We are just beginning to secure the post offices, in a way. You see, the post office obviously was set up as a way to efficiently deliver mail, not understanding that someone would dare use the mail as a weapon against America, and we are adjusting quickly to the new realities that we face. All this costs money, and we are spending it here in Washington. And when the money we have committed is spent, we believe it will have a positive effect on the economy.


There is a lot of good ideas in Washington, and a lot of them cost a lot of money. And we must be careful to assess our needs and make sure we are cautious about how we spend taxpayers' money. We believe the best way to stimulate and restore confidence to the economy is not through additional spending but through tax relief. If we can get a bill out of both the House and the Senate, it will happen in quick fashion. Unlike spending programs, we will not have to wait for plans to be drafted and contracts to be let. The tax relief for new investment in the House stimulus package will go into effect as soon as the bill is signed, if we can get it out of the Senate. New lower tax rates for consumers and entrepreneurs will show up in paychecks on the first day of the next year of the new year, if we can get that passed out of the Senate. The tax rebates for low- and moderate-income folks would begin to arrive soon, if we can get it out of the Senate. Tax relief will put money rapidly into the hands of consumers. Tax relief will improve incentives to save and invest and will give a powerful boost to our national economy. When we have tried in the past to spend our way out of an economic slowdown, we have found that the money has often been spent unwisely. Tax relief, on the other hand, lets individuals decide for themselves what they need most. Tax relief lets economic resources flow to places where they can do the most good for the country. The House's tax relief plan accelerates some income tax reductions already planned for individuals and entrepreneurs and small businesses. This will give people opportunity to make decisions for themselves. And we have learned from experience that free decisions are usually the best decisions for our economy as a whole. And third, and most important, tax relief will expand productive investment. The House plan allows businesses to speed up the expensing of new equipment. And it reforms the corporate Tax Code, so that companies do not face higher effective rates as their profits decline. Together, these two changes will persuade many companies that time has come to reinvest in America. And when we invest in America, we create jobs for American workers. We need an energy plan for America. Under the leadership of the Vice President, we drafted a comprehensive, commonsense plan for the future of this country. It passed the House of Representatives. It needs a vote in the United States Senate.