THE PRESIDENT: Please be seated. Thank you
all. It's nice to be back in New York City, and I am so
proud to stand here today with New York's Finest, and New York's
Bravest.
I have a message for you from your fellow
Americans: Police and firefighters of New York, you have
this nation's respect, and you'll have this nation's support.
The budget that Tom talked about increases the federal commitment
to our nation's first responders by more than 1,000
percent. It is the right thing to do. And you all
are the right -- to help us continue to fight this war on terror.
I want to thank Tom Ridge for taking on the job. He was
a good governor; he's a very good Homeland Security
Director. I know he comes from Pennsylvania -- (laughter) --
but I'm proud of the job he's doing. He's helping to develop
a national strategy that starts with understanding that the best
responders and the best response starts at the local
level. And the role of the federal government is to
facilitate the job done at the local level.
And so, Governor, thank you so much for taking on this big
assignment. (Applause.)
I want to thank your Governor. You know, it's very
important to have a steady hand, an anchor in the wind, in a time of
crisis. I think that's how you can determine whether or not
somebody knows how to lead. And your Governor showed your
state and the country that he is a leader. And I'm proud to
call him friend. I hope you're proud to call him
Governor. (Applause.)
I appreciate your Mayor. He's come in with a tough job,
but he's going to tackle it with a lot of savvy. And New
York made the right decision when they picked Mayor
Bloomberg. He's got a lot of financial background; he's
going to help New York City guide -- (laughter and
applause.) It's important that you picked somebody who
understands numbers over a politician, because he's going to be able to
help guide you through this tough period. It's
important. I think you made a good choice, I really
do. And I'm proud to work with him.
I want to thank Vito for being here as well. He's a fine
member of the United States
Congress. (Applause.) Vito likes to bring his
sister to every event. (Laughter.) Five
sisters. Only one of them yelled. (Laughter.)
And I want to thank -- I want to thank Commissioner
Kelly. It's good to see you again,
Commissioner. I'm proud of your record, proud of your
accomplishments. (Applause.)
Last week I reported to our Congress that the state of our union
has never been stronger; that despite a war, a recession, despite
continuing danger, we are strong, really strong, because our people are
strong. And there's no stronger people than the men and
women who wear the uniform here in New York. There's no
stronger people than those who kind of set the new standard of courage
and honor.
There's a new ethic in America -- at least I think one's coming on
-- a new culture, a culture to replace -"if it feels good, do it" with
one of responsibility, with one defined by those brave words, "Let's
roll." (Applause.)
But that's nothing new for the firefighters and the policemen of
New York. That's been your ethic for a long, long
time. That ethic's been around here way before September the
11th. And a lot of people are lucky the ethic was around.
As you rebuild your ranks, every new recruit walks in the path of
heroes. And as a result of some of the courageous action
here, not only is a new ethic evolving, but there's some fantastic
examples for young recruits to follow.
Peter Ganci -- many of you knew him. He was the
highest-ranking uniform officer in the New York Fire
Department. His deputy, Michael Regan, saw him for the last
time on the morning of September the 11th, after the first building had
collapsed and while the second building was still
burning. Michael Regan recalled this: Peter
directed every citizen and every firefighter to go north to safety; and
he want south, directly into danger. Let's roll.
Brian McDonnell. Or, maybe -- maybe you knew Brian well
here. His wife called him a cop's cop. He was a
former Army paratrooper. He was known for always putting his
colleagues first. September the 11th, he was last seen
charging into the south tower to help his fellow citizens.
On the worst day this city has ever known, we saw some of the
finest people New York has ever produced. We mourn every
loss. We remember every life. But they will not
have died in vain.
I told our country and I told the world that we don't seek revenge,
we seek justice. And I want to assure you all, those who
have been touched by this terrible tragedy, justice will be meted
out. I unleashed the mighty United States military and they
have not let us down. In five short months, in a brief
period of time, we have completely routed the Taliban. I
said loud and clear, if you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a
terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorist, and the Taliban
found out what we meant. (Applause.)
This is a patient nation. We are a determined
nation. We're a nation that will not rest until we have
brought justice not only on the al Qaeda killers and governments which
support and house them, but on terrorism everywhere. Now we
must seize the moment. History has called this nation into
action; history has given us a chance to defend freedom, to fight
tyranny. And that's exactly what this country is going to
do. We defend freedom. (Applause.)
Not only do we owe it to those whose lives were lost on September
the 11th, but we owe it to the living, as well. We owe it to
our children and our children's children, to protect a way of life, to
defend freedom, to defend our values, to fight evil. And we
will not tire, nor will we rest, until justice is done.
Oh, some around the world may grow weary. Some may grow
exhausted by our drive for freedom. But not me, not our
government, and not our nation. (Applause.)
I have submitted a budget that recognizes that Afghanistan is only
the first theater on the war against terror. We
significantly increase the budget for national
defense. After all, it is our number one
priority. It is the largest increase since the presidency of
Ronald Reagan, whose 91st birthday we celebrate
today. (Applause.) His budgets helped rebuild the
military power of the United States. And for that our nation
should be grateful.
But what was true in his day is true today -- that whatever it
costs to defend our security, and whatever it costs to defend our
freedom, we must pay it. I ask Congress to pass this
budget. (Applause.) Our men and women who wear
the uniform of the United States military deserve the best training,
the best equipment, another pay raise, the best support of the United
States of America. (Applause.)
And for those of you who have a relative who wear the uniform of
the United States military -- the moms and dads, brothers and sisters,
sons and daughters -- on behalf of a grateful nation, I want to thank
you very much. (Applause.)
I'm fully aware of the task at hand. I know that in
order to defend America in the long-term, we've got to be successful
overseas; that the best homeland defense is to rout out terror wherever
it exists. I know that. And I know some of them
are going to try to hide in caves, but there is no cave deep enough for
us. They're going to try to run, but they can't run
forever. They cannot run forever. And in the
meantime, until we achieve our objective -- no matter how long that
takes -- we will secure our homeland.
I have the great honor of going into the Oval Office as your
President. Every morning that I walk in there, I'm thrilled
and honored. I take the dog in with me, and she seems to be
thrilled and honored, too. (Laughter.) I sit down
at the fantastic desk -- it's a desk that the Roosevelts used; it's a
desk John Kennedy used; Reagan used; it's a desk I'm honored to
use. And the first thing I do is, I look at threats to the
United States of America.
They're still out there. The enemy still wants to get
us. And I want to assure you all we're doing everything in
our power to prevent them from doing that; that my main job -- and the
main job of Ridge and the FBI and Kelly and everybody else involved
with law enforcement is to protect the American people, is to keep
American families safe. And we're pouring all our energy
into doing our job, which is the security of the country.
We've changed the attitude of the FBI. I mean, we're
interested in spies; we're more interested in al Qaeda
killers. We're going to run down white-collar criminals; but
our focus is on finding any cell that may exist in our country and
getting them. We're going to run down every piece of
evidence we find and share it with state and local
authorities. We're on the
hunt. (Applause.) We're on the hunt, and we're
not going to rest. We're just not going to
rest. The American people need to know we're doing
everything in our power to strengthen the security at home.
And we're preparing for -- we're preparing
responses. Yesterday, Tom and I went over to Pittsburgh and
talked about a bioterrorism response as a part of our homeland security
package. We're loading up with medicines. We're
going to have the health services communicate better with each
other. We're ready. We're getting ready.
We're doing a better job of securing our border. We're
going to figure out who's coming into our country and who's leaving our
country, to make sure that people -- (applause.) Listen,
we're a great nation. We welcome people in. We
just want to know why you're
here. (Laughter.) And if you're not supposed to
be here more than a period of time, then maybe you ought to just go on
home. It's important -- (applause) -- it's important that we
have good information so we can secure the homeland. It's
important that our airports be secure.
And so, we worked with Congress to get a bill out to make air
travel more safe. And it's important that we understand that
in the first minutes and hours after attack, that's the most hopeful
time to save lives. And so that's why we're focusing on the
heroic efforts of those first-time responders. That's why we
want to spend money to make sure equipment is there, strategies are
there, communications are there, to make sure that you have whatever it
takes, prepared to respond.
But the interesting thing about making sure our homeland is more
secure is that, as a result of focusing on first responders,
neighborhoods will be more safe in the long run. As a result
of focusing on bioterrorism, perhaps we'll develop vaccines and
medicines and cures for other diseases. As a focus on making
sure our health systems talk better, we'll leave behind a better health
care system. As a way of making sure that our borders are
more secure, we'll have a stronger Coast Guard. And so, the
short run, we're focusing on attacks; the long run, the country will be
better off for the doubling of the homeland security budget that I
submitted to the United States Congress. (Applause.)
And part of making sure we're secure is to make sure there's
economic security, for New Yorkers and for the
country. Obviously, I'm deeply concerned about the
recession. And I understand the shocks to our economy, what
9/11 did. And I'm worried about the fact that many New
Yorkers aren't working, and we want them to work. And that's
why I am committed to defeating not only terrorists, but the
recession.
These are -- I want you to know something: When I say
I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. I told the
people of New York that we will work to provide at least $20 billion to
help New York rebuild herself. And that includes money apart
from the Victims Compensation Fund. And when I say $20
billion, I mean $20 billion. (Applause.)
FEMA is on the spot. And we're now spending a lot of
money here to help New York and the emergency side of
things. And we need to restore the
infrastructure. We need to quickly rebuild the
highways. And you know what else we need? We need
the Liberty Zone in lower Manhattan. We need to provide job
incentive, incentive to create jobs in the area that was affected by
the attack. Congress needs to put the Liberty Zone, the
Liberty Bonds, in a stimulus package and get it to my desk so I can
sign it for the good of New York City. (Applause.)
It is important that New York City be vibrant and
strong. It's important when people not only here at home,
but around the world, look at this fantastic city, they see economic
vitality and growth. I'm confident we can recover
together. It's going to take federal and state
effort. I'm here to tell you the federal help is
coming. (Applause.)
You know, I don't know what went through the enemy's mind when they
attacked us. I think they thought we were soft. I
like to needle them by saying they must have been watching too much
daytime TV. (Laughter.) They probably thought
that, oh, we'll attack and we'll just kind of roll over, gnash our
teeth a little bit, wring our hands, mourn for the dead, and
forget. Boy, they really miscalculated.
See, they don't understand America. They don't
understand us. We're understanding more about ourselves as a
result of what went on. We understand heroism. We
understand now what it means to recite a prayer, tell your wife, "I
love you," on the phone, and drive a plane in the ground to save
others' lives. We're beginning to understand more about
sacrifice, personal responsibility.
See, I believe out of this terrible evil can come some great
good. I believe there's a better understanding of the
sacrifice the policemen and firefighters make. And that's
good for America. I believe there is a different culture
evolving, one that says each of us need to be responsible for the
decisions we make; each of us ought to love a neighbor like we'd like
to be loved ourself. There's a different culture evolving as
moms and dads now understand their most important job is to love their
children with all their heart and all their soul.
People ask me all the time what can I do to help fight terror,
fight the evil ones. Well, I believe since this is a
struggle between evil and good, the best way to do it is to do some
good in your neighborhood -- is to mentor a child who may be lost; is
to help a shut-in; is to walk across the street to a neighbor in need
and say, what can I do to help you.
Many of you are already doing that -- by loving the widows and the
children of those who lost their life. It's these thousands
and millions of acts of kindness all across America on a daily basis
that define the character of our nation. The way you fight
evil is with millions of acts of good. It's the cumulative
effect of the heart and soul of America that stands tall against the
evil ones. Not only will we prevail militarily in the long
run, but we will have overcome evil by being a nation that is more
compassionate, more decent, more loving to our fellow citizens.
I'm so proud of how America has responded. I'm proud of
New York City and the strength and character you have
shown. I loved it when our pilots found on some of the
munitions this simple sign, "I love New York." America loves
New York. We love your strength. We love your
resolve. We've loved your courage in the face of incredible
difficulty.
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