July 19, 2002
The Vice President Makes Remarks at an event for
Representative Saxby Chambliss
AS PREPARED
Thank you, Saxby, and thank you all. It’s good to be here, and to
share the stage with the next United States Senator for the state of
Georgia.
I’ve been looking forward to visiting this fine city, and I thank
the people of Macon for your hospitality. I’m honored to bring good
wishes to each and every one of you from our President, George W.
Bush.
I'’m here because the Senate race in Georgia is very important to
the President and me. The President and I count on Saxby Chambliss,
just as you count on him. He works hard for the people of Georgia …
speaks his mind … and is completely dedicated to the public
interest. He’s been an effective member of the committees on
Agriculture, Armed Services, and Intelligence, and he’s done an
especially fine job in the critical position of chairman of the
subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security.
In four terms as a Congressman, he’s become one of the most
respected members of the House – thoughtful, principled, and always
willing to work with colleagues to find bipartisan solutions to the
country’s problems. As the President has said, Saxby is “one of
those can-do politicians – somebody who goes to Washington and tries
to figure out how to make things better.” He’s a reliable friend of
the farmer, the entrepreneur, the senior, the veteran, and every
hardworking taxpayer. This man is doing a tremendous job in the
House of Representatives, and I look forward to the day next January
when I swear him in as a United States Senator.
We want to keep Saxby working with us every day on our priorities
for the country – winning the war on terror, protecting the
homeland, and extending the reach of prosperity into as many lives
as possible.
On the economy, there’s a great deal of work yet to do – but we
are proceeding from a position of tremendous strength. In spite of
all that happened last year – from terrorist attack to a serious
economic slowdown – worker productivity has grown by more than four
percent. In the first quarter of this year, the economy grew at an
annual rate exceeding six percent. Clearly, we’re on the path to a
strong and sustained recovery.
To stay on that path, our responsibilities are clear, and they
begin with pro-growth reforms proposed by President Bush – an energy
policy to make America less dependent on foreign oil … trade
promotion authority to open new markets for American products … and
terrorism insurance to give companies the ability to expand and
build.
For their part, leaders of the private sector also have
responsibilities – to be honest and above board in all dealings, and
truthful when they report profits and losses. The foundation of any
economy is confidence – and President Bush is proposing reform to
strengthen the people’s confidence in the basic integrity of the
system. These proposals will help ensure better information for
investors and more accountability for corporate officials, and
deliver a stronger, more independent auditing system. When there are
reports of corporate fraud, the American people can be certain that
the government will fully investigate, and pursue the wrongdoers.
This nation has brought forth the most productive, creative, and
promising economic system the world has ever seen. The President’s
reforms will bring out the best in that system, answering abusive
practices with stricter enforcement and higher ethical standards.
Most people who do business in America are trustworthy and honest.
Their word is good. They keep faith with shareholders and employees.
We must not and will not allow the bad deeds of a few to tarnish the
free enterprise system.
Americans can also count on President Bush to continue reducing
taxes on the hardworking people of this country. The Bush tax cut
now in effect is the largest taxpayer relief package in a
generation. Now that tax relief is in place, Congress should not
take it away. Under current law, the tax cuts are set to expire in
2011. That last thing American workers need is a return to higher
taxes. It’s far better, in our view, to make the Bush tax cut
permanent, and enforce fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C.
Overspending by Congress poses a real risk to our economic
vitality. The President has submitted a budget that fits the times –
with major investments in homeland security and defense, while other
domestic spending is held to an increase of two percent. The House
has adopted a budget that is consistent with the President’s
request. Now we’re in the appropriations process, and it’s critical
that we stay within those limits on spending. The President will
insist on fiscal discipline – and the Constitution gives him a good
tool for the job. If necessary, he will use the veto to protect the
American taxpayer.
We need Saxby in the Senate because he knows what it means to be
a careful steward of taxpayer dollars. And we need him there to help
us put qualified, sensible judges on the federal bench. Staffing the
judiciary is a basic constitutional responsibility of the President
and the Senate. President Bush is meeting his responsibility, but
the Senate is failing to do so. The President has sent up well over
a hundred nominees for the courts, yet only 58 have been confirmed.
Nationwide more than 90 judgeships sit empty, and many of these have
been classified as judicial emergencies. Yet 11 nominees for the
courts of appeals have had to wait more than a year for the Senate
Judiciary Committee to even hold a hearing.
In nominating judges President Bush chooses men and women of
experience, judicial temperament, and good judgment … people who
respect the Constitution, and understand the limits of the judicial
power. That is the only legitimate standard for selecting judges,
and it is the only way to prevent outrages like the California
ruling that banned the Pledge of Allegiance.
That decision was handed down by the court of appeals for the
ninth circuit. President Bush has submitted three well qualified
nominees for that court. And it’s become obvious to all Americans
that we need some new judges on the ninth circuit.
One of the President’s federal court nominees is Priscilla Owens,
a distinguished attorney who serves today on the Supreme Court of
Texas. Fourteen months after her nomination was announced, Justice
Owen will finally receive a hearing next Tuesday. At that hearing
senators will meet a judge who was twice elected to her position … a
woman with a superb legal mind, who enjoys strong bipartisan support
and the unqualified endorsement of no fewer than 15 former
presidents of the State Bar of Texas. Priscilla Owen is a first-rate
nominee. The Senate should move to confirm her, and all of the
President’s judicial nominees, without wasting another day.
As our administration pursues a full agenda in Washington, never
for a moment do we lose sight of the most important responsibility
we have: to protect this nation against further attacks … and to win
the war that began on September 11, 2001.
The first thing the President and I do every day is to receive an
intelligence briefing, and learn the current assessment of the
dangers forming against the United States. There is little doubting
that our enemies are determined to do further and significant harm
to the American people. And there is no doubting that we will take
every step necessary to defend our country – and we will prevail.
The dangers to America require action on many fronts all at once.
We are reorganizing the federal government to protect the nation
against attack. At present, more than a hundred different federal
agencies have some connection to homeland security. The time has
arrived for a new Department of Homeland Security, gathering under
one roof the capability to identify threats, check them against our
vulnerabilities, and move swiftly to protect the American people.
This new department will increase the focus and effectiveness of
homeland security, and set clear lines of accountability. We intend
to spend less money on bureaucracy and duplication and overhead –
and more money on protecting the American people.
At the same time, we realize that wars are not won on the
defensive. We must take the battle to the enemy – and, where
necessary, preempt serious threats to our country before they
materialize. The only path to safety is the path of action. The
United States of America will act, and we will defeat the enemies of
freedom.
This lesson has already been learned in Afghanistan, where
coalition forces destroyed the terror camps and liberated an entire
nation from the Taliban regime. Yet Afghanistan is only the
beginning of a long and unrelenting effort. Were we to stop now, any
sense of security we might have would be false and temporary. There
is a terrorist underworld spread out among 60 or more countries. The
job we have will require every tool of diplomacy, finance,
intelligence, law enforcement, and military power. But we will, over
time, shut down terrorist camps wherever they are … and disrupt
terrorist plans … and find the terrorists one by one, and bring them
to justice. In the case of bin Laden – as President Bush said the
other day – “If he’s alive, we’ll get him. If he’s not alive – we
got him.”
But this war involves more than just a person or a single
grouping of people. We also face the threat of weapons of mass
destruction. And here the old doctrines of security do not apply. In
the days of the Cold War, we were able to manage the threat with
summit meetings, arms control treaties, and strategies of deterrence
and containment. But there is no way to deter enemies who have no
country to defend. And containment is not possible when dictators
obtain weapons of mass destruction and have missiles to deliver
them, or provide them in secret to a shadowy terror network.
We have already found confirmation that the al-Qaeda terrorists
are seriously interested in nuclear and radiological weapons, and in
biological and chemical agents. At the same time, there is a danger
of terror groups joining together with regimes that have or are
seeking to build weapons of mass destruction. In the case of Saddam
Hussein, we have a dictator who is clearly pursuing these
capabilities – and has used them, both in his war against Iran and
against his own people.
The government of the United States will not look the other way
as threats accumulate against us. Every significant danger to our
country requires the most careful, deliberate, and decisive response
by America and our allies. A regime that has gassed thousands of its
own citizens … a regime that hates America and our friends … must
never be permitted to threaten America with weapons of mass
destruction.
The most visible successes in the war have been achieved by our
military. More than 60,000 troops are deployed around the world in
this effort, and I visited some of them last spring, during my
journey to the Middle East. Many of you here today have family
members serving in the military. Wherever they are posted, the
nation is depending on them. As a former secretary of defense, I
have never been more proud of the men and women who wear the uniform
of the United States of America.
In this challenge to our freedom we will be expecting a lot from
our military – and those who serve are entitled to expect some
things from us. If we’re going to ask young men and women to defend
our country, our allies, and our freedom ... if we’re going to send
them on dangerous missions to fight determined enemies – they
deserve the best tools, training, and support we can give them. For
that reason, President Bush has asked for the most significant
increase in defense spending since Ronald Reagan lived in the White
House. And for the good of all our military families, the
President’s budget gives every man and woman in uniform a raise in
pay – and they have earned it.
The conduct of our military does more than bring credit to the
country; it reflects the basic character of the American people.
This is a good, decent, generous country. We fight not for revenge
against our enemies, but for the freedom and security of our own
people … and for the peace of the world. At times in our history the
price of freedom has been high, but Americans have always been
willing to pay that price – even when the odds weighed heavily
against us.
I was reminded of this as I read David McCullough’s biography of
our first vice president, John Adams. When Adams and his fellow
delegates voted to approve the Declaration of Independence, they
knew precisely what kind of trouble they were bringing on
themselves. To sign the Declaration, one of the founders said, was
like signing your own death warrant. As of July 4, 1776, they would
be considered traitors to a king, at war with the army of an empire.
Large numbers of enemy soldiers were already positioned on American
soil, intent on crushing the rebellion in short order. In mid-August
thirty-two thousand British troops landed at Staten Island – an army
greater in size than the entire population of our largest city at
the time, Philadelphia. The American force was far smaller … had
very little in the way of equipment and supplies … and was comprised
almost entirely of poorly-trained volunteers. All they had was the
courage of human beings determined to live in freedom.
Before they prevailed the Americans endured not weeks, or months,
but years of hardship and struggle. That was certainly true here in
Georgia, where there were many engagements with the British forces.
The American victory at Yorktown didn’t come until the fall of 1781.
The Treaty of Paris, which John Adams helped negotiate and which
ended the Revolution, was finally concluded in September of 1783 –
more than seven difficult years after the Declaration was signed.
From that day to this, the people of the United States have
understood that the freedom we enjoy did not come easily – and we
have no intention of letting it slip away. History has called
generations of Americans to defend our country and defeat some of
the gravest threats humanity has known. We have accepted that duty
once again, because we know the cause is just … we understand that
the hopes of the civilized world depend on us … and we are certain
of the victory to come.
In this time of testing I am very proud to stand beside a
President who has united our nation behind great goals. For all the
challenges we face, the United States of America has never been
stronger than we are today – and even better days are ahead of us.
The President and I are very grateful for the opportunity to serve
this country. We thank you for your support – not just for our
efforts, but for solid citizens like Saxby Chambliss, who will be
our partner in the important work ahead.
Thank you very much.