For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 8, 2001
President Speaks at Tax Celebration Event in Iowa
Listen to the President's Remarks
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very
much. It's nice to be back on the farm. I want to
thank the Barretts for their hospitality. I was here before,
I'm going to make mention of that in a minute; but it's great to be
back here again. Tom and Judy and their family represent
what America is all about -- family values, family love, hard work,
tradition, history, generations. So it's an honor to be back
here and be able to talk a little bit about what's going on in the
nation's capital.
I am so honored to be traveling today with
members of the Iowa congressional delegation -- at least those who had
the wisdom to support tax relief for the hard working people of
Iowa. (Applause.)
The Senator was really effective. I
know you were proud of him before this piece of legislation
passed. But if you had seen him like I saw him, working hard
on behalf of people, you'd really be proud. This was a
monumental legislative achievement, because the Chairman from the great
state of Iowa worked diligently on behalf of the American
people. This happened because Chairman Grassley made it
happen and I am so grateful to him. (Applause.)
As you know, we Bushs are used to taking
orders from people named
Barbara. (Laughter.) That's right, it is her
birthday. I want you to note, those in the press corps, I
called her first thing this morning and wished her a happy birthday.
But Senator Grassley listens to someone named
Barbara as well, and she is with us today. Barbara
Grassley. Thanks for coming, Barbara. (Applause.)
Four congressmen from Iowa stood fast with the
people of Iowa. Congressman Ganske. I'm saying he might be
thinking down the road. If he is, I hope everybody gives him
a serious look. Because he was steadfast when it came to
worrying about the working people in the state of Iowa and the farmers
in the state of Iowa. (Applause.)
And you've allowed others from the great state
of Iowa to come into the greater Des Moines area, Latham, Leach and
Nussle. Fine congressmen, honest, decent
Americans. And by the way, Congressman Jim Nussle was in the
Budget Committee. He did a superb job, an unbelievably good
job of shepherding through a budget that not only helps the nation meet
our priorities but a budget that also included some of the surplus
going back to the people that pay the bills. Congressman
Nussle distinguished himself on behalf of all Americans and
particularly the people of the state of Iowa. So I am so
honored that the three -- four congressmen are with us. (Applause.)
You may have heard that I'm on my way from
here to chunk out the first pitch at the College World
Series. As you know, it's in Nebraska -- I see a man with a
Nebraska -- there you go, yes -- Nebraska hat on. Well,
we've got a congressman from Nebraska, as well, with us, Congressman
Lee Perry. I appreciate you coming, Lee, as well; thanks for being
here. (Applause.)
I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to
go with the fast-ball or slider
today. (Laughter.) I just hope it's not the same
pitch I used in Milwaukee to open the stadium, where there was an
actual bounce to it before it got to the
plate. (Laughter.) I'm so honored to be
here. Kay, I appreciate you being here. I
remember well the speech I gave to the Greater Des Moines
Partnership. And I want to thank all the Chamber of Commerce
members who are here.
I also want to recognize two former governors,
friends of mine who were steadfast in their support, Bob Ray, Terry
Branstad, thank you both for
coming. (Applause.) They still remember
you. And I know the Speaker of the House is here, as
well. Where's Brent? Brent, thanks for coming, it's great to
see you. Thank you. (Applause.)
The last time I was here we were talking about
foreign policy, and there were two people who were here then that
aren't here now. And I'm so sad that Herb Plambeck and Bob
Lounsberry are not here with us. But I can assure you that
they're smiling when they heard that we had gotten rid of the death
tax.
I also want to thank the tax families who are
here, those of you who paid attention to the campaign. One
of the things I tried to do in the course of the campaign, in order to
build public will, or good public policy, was to talk about how tax
relief would benefit real-life families; how tax relief would make a
difference in the lives of hard-working Iowa citizens -- the Kozol
family, the Dowell family and the Barrett family are here with us.
Thank you all so very much for
coming. Thanks for letting me use you as a live
example. You should take special pride in knowing that your
hard work along with the hard work of millions of others convinced the
United States Congress to do the right thing. Tax relief is
real and tax relief is on the way. (Applause.)
Somebody said, well, why are you going back to
the farm to talk about the joint accomplishment that happened in
Washington? Well, it's the place where I made the
promise. It is here that I talked about the agricultural
policy that I felt was good for the nation. It was here
where I, amongst other things, said two things loud and
clear. One, my administration will support ethanol not only
during the campaign but afterwards. (Applause.)
We believe in value-added
processing. I haven't changed my mind since I got
elected. I still strongly believe that ethanol is important,
not only to reduce dependency upon foreign sources of energy, but also
as a source and a way to clean the air.
And secondly, I said, if given a chance to be
the President, I would do everything I could to get rid of the death
tax. The bill I signed yesterday gets rid of the death tax
over time. The bill I signed yesterday recognizes that when
you tax a person's assets twice, it's unfair. (Applause.)
The bill we worked on and I signed recognized
the importance of the family farmer in America. I heard
somebody say, well, you know, the death tax doesn't cause people to
sell their farms. I don't know who they're talking to in
Iowa. I've talked to people who were forced to sell their
farms in order to pay for the death tax.
But I'll tell you what else the death tax used
to do. It used to cause generation after generation to bear
debt, to live under the heavy onus of having to borrow money to pay
their taxes. Now, in some cases, they may not have
transferred the assets out of the family, but in many cases the death
tax caused one generation after another to try to climb out from
underneath heavy debt and those days are ended, as far as we're
concerned, in America.
And then I went over -- that was September
1st, '99. And I went and December 1st -- Kay mentioned --
and talked about tax relief beyond just the death tax. I
laid out some principles. I said, first and foremost, I
believe our government can afford tax relief. Then the
economy turned a little south on us and I began to say, not only can we
afford it, we cannot afford not to have it. It's important
for us to make a case, and I think people listened, that tax relief
will provide a second wind to our economy. I said that a principle
that needed to be -- this needs to be a tax cut that was fair.
We said in the course of the campaign, the
Chairman embraced the idea, that if you pay taxes, you get tax
relief. That instead of having this business about
Washington, D.C. targeting people in or targeting people out, we didn't
think that was fair. We said, everybody who pays -- the only
fair way to deal with tax relief is to reduce all rates on all
taxpayers, so that Washington doesn't pick and choose winners and
losers. (Applause.)
And that's what this bill did. It
said, we're going to be fair about tax relief. And as the
senator mentioned, this is the first reduction in all rates in 20 years
-- as a matter of fact, since World War II it has only happened
twice. President Kennedy had the honor of signing the tax
relief plan, President Ronald Reagan had the honor of signing an
overhaul of the tax code and overall tax relief plan. And
now President George W. Bush has that honor and I'm in distinguished
company, I might add. (Applause.)
We also said in the campaign that it was
important to make the code respond to people who make good
choices. A good choice is being married. (Laughter and
applause.) And we did something about the marriage penalty
in the tax code. We say if you're struggling hard to get
ahead, that we ought to -- and you're raising kids, we recognize that
in tax relief. And so far, the tax relief package has raised
the child credit from $500 to $1,000 per child.
And we also said in this bill, which I
supported and I know the Chairman supported, that there is some who may
not have qualified for the tax credit in the past, that we ought to
have a refundable tax credit for the poor -- citizens in our
society. And that's a part of the bill, as well.
This tax legislation is good for the
country. It's good for the economy. And, as
importantly, it embodies a principle that is embedded in my political
soul. And it says that our government at all times ought to
trust the people; that we ought to trust the people of this country.
(Applause.) It says, once we meet our priorities, that we
ought to trust the people with the surplus -- after all, it's the
people's money, it's not the government's
money. (Applause.) I would much rather have the
tax families making the decisions with their own money than the federal
government deciding what's best for American families.
No, the core principle of this tax relief plan
says, we trust people. We trust the American people. And
all of us in public office should, because the American people are the
finest people on the face of the earth. (Applause.)
This tax relief plan is also important because
it's the beginning of the change of the tone in Washington,
D.C. You know, a lot of us that worked in Washington in the
past and used to look up there and weren't really pleased with the
bickering that was going on, and the name-calling and the unnecessary
shrillness that were echoing through the halls of the
Capitol. There is still some of that. Sometimes I
catch some of those elected officials, maybe not saying things about me
that my mother would like to hear. But the tone is
changing. It is. We're working hard to change
it.
The Chairman worked hard with his counterpart,
with the Democrat in the western state, to get this bill
done. Tax relief is important for the
economy. Tax relief is really important for the American
people. Tax relief is going to be evident pretty quickly, by
the way, when married couples start getting a $600 check this
summer. (Applause.) Single head of the household,
$500 check. Single folks, a $300 check, followed by
reduction of rate.
But tax relief also shows what can happen with
the right spirit and right attitude in our nation's
capital. It shows the American people that if you set aside
partisanship and focus on good public policy, we can accomplish things
on behalf of the American people. Instead of kind of
worrying about your own standing or focusing on a focus group, taking a
poll to figure out what to believe in. If you put the
interest of the American people ahead of self-interest or political
interest, we can get quality things done in the nation's
capital. This is the beginning of a lot of reform that's
going to take place. (Applause.)
And I'm excited about what's coming down the
pike. We're fixing to get a good education bill
out. I hope the Senate moves it quickly. One that
sets high standards, trusts local people to make the decisions for
their children, one that embodies an Iowa concept of accountability,
right in the core of the education system. (Applause.)
I'm excited about the progress we're making as
far as our military. I said loud and clear when I came to
Iowa, it's important for our military to be of high standing, high
morale. The first thing we're going to do is pay our troops
more money and make sure they're better housed. (Applause.)
I'm going to Europe and looking forward to my
trip, going to Europe. But I cannot wait to describe to the people of
Europe, the leaders in Europe, how important it is for freedom loving
people to think differently about how to keep peace. Now,
Russia is not our enemy, Russia is no longer our enemy and therefore we
shouldn't be locked into a Cold War mentality that says we keep the
peace by blowing each other up. In my attitude, that's old,
that's tired, that's stale.
Our United States and our allies ought to
develop the capacity to address the true threats of the 21st
century. The true threats are biological and informational
warfare. The true threats are the fact that some rogue
nations who can't stand America, our allies, our freedoms or our
successes would try to point a missile at us. And we must
have the capacity to shoot that missile down. It's time to
think differently about defense. (Applause.)
We're making progress. We're not
only making progress and changing the tone, we're making progress of
convincing people that some issues require a different way of
thinking.
I'm so excited to be the
President. It is an incredible honor.
(Applause.) Because we also have a chance to work together
to change our nation's culture, to usher in a period of personal
responsibility, to say loud and clear to citizens who need help,
somebody loves you.
You see, government can spend money, and we
will. Our budgets reflect the compassion of
America. But compassion isn't measured in dollars and
cents. Compassion is measured in acts of kindness, in
decency. (Applause.) One of the most important initiatives
we're working on is what I call a faith-based and community
initiative. It says in order to make sure people aren't left
behind, not only do children need to be educated, but our nation must
rally mentors to say to children whose parents may be in prison, I care
for you, I want to provide you with hope.
But we've got to understand, I'll never forget
going to Colfax, Iowa, to understand that sometimes in order to get a
person off alcohol or drugs, the most effective way is to change the
person's heart.
Government can't cause people to love one
another. But what government and leaders can do is gather up
the great compassion of Americans, encourage faith-based programs to
flourish, welcome community-based programs in neighborhoods, all aimed
at making sure no citizen in this land is left
behind. (Applause.)
And I believe we're on our way. I
believe we're on our way to a much better America. We're
great. We can be even greater. And it begins by
understanding where the strength of this country is. The
strength of this country is in the hearts and souls of loving, decent,
honorable citizens.
My job is to call upon the best and it's my
honor to do so. It also starts with understanding the
ultimate responsibilities of the collective offices we
hold. I'll never forget that I hold the highest office of
the land and, with it, comes an awesome responsibility and I accept it
gladly, and I'm not going to let you down. (Applause.)
Thanks for having me back. I'm
honored to have your hospitality. God bless you all and God
bless America. (Applause.)
END
10:40 A.M. CDT
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