For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 1, 2001
Remarks by the President at Leadership Forum
Egleston Children's Hospital Atlanta, Georgia
3:17 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very
much. And, Lydia, thank you for the tour. This is
a hospital, but it's also -- it's a place full of love. And
I was most touched by meeting the parents and the kids and the nurses
and the docs, all of whom are working hard to save lives. I
want to thank the moms who are here. Thank you very much for
you hospitality. And, Tommy, I'll get to you in a
minute. (Laughter.)
There's a lot of talk about budgets right now,
and I'm here to talk about the budget. My job as the
President is to submit a budget to the Congress and to set priorities,
and one of the priorities that we've talked
about is making sure the health care systems are
funded. And Dr. Woods talked about our commitment -- and
it's a joint commitment -- it's a commitment I'm confident the Congress
will make with me to double the NIH funding by the year
2003. That's an important commitment of the federal
government.
You know more than me about how effective
those dollars can be, and it's a wise use of federal taxpayers'
money. It means that the budget will
be increased to $28 billion a year by the year 2003.
Secondly, I want to talk about two other
aspects of health care before
I get into how this all works. One is we're going to double
Medicare over the next 10 years, from $216 billion to $549
billion. It's a significant increase of
expenditures. It's $159 billion in new Medicare spending
above
and beyond that which was projected. It means that our
country is going to make a firm commitment to those who rely upon
Medicare dollars -- the elderly, the teaching hospitals. It
is an important federal commitment.
By the way, with the expenditure of Medicare
money, we also have got to have the courage to reform Medicare to make
it a program where seniors have got more choices and more options from
which to choose to match their particular needs. And all the
reforms must insist that prescription drug coverage becomes an integral
part of the Medicare package.
And finally, an interesting opportunity we
have in the country as far as I'm concerned is to increase funding to
community health centers. I'd like to increase the number of
community health centers from 3,000 to 4,200
over the next five years, doubling the number of people who will be
served.
Community health centers are good
opportunities to take pressure off of hospital emergency room, for
starters. They're opportunities for people
to get primary care who are indigent poor, maybe newly arrived to
America. It is a wise expenditure of taxpayers' money.
The point I'm trying to make to the people of
Georgia and will make around the country is the first job of a
President is to set priorities. Not only are these -- the items I just
talked about priorities, so is public schools. It's a
priority. As a matter of fact, the largest increase in my
budget is for public education.
However, I'm mindful of the fact that the
federal government is only a
partial provider of funds and should never run the
schools. I strongly advocate and strongly will fight for
local control of schools. One size does not fit all when it
comes to the education of children.
As an aside, one of the interesting reforms
that I hope we get through
the Congress says two things -- one, we're going to provide
flexibility to local folks to run the schools. And
secondly, if you receive federal money, you must measure -- you must
show us whether or not children are learning to read and write and add
and subtract and, if not, correct.
This is an interesting place to talk about
diagnosing problems, right here in a hospital. Well, we need
to do the same thing in education, particularly in early
years. We must diagnose whether or not a child has
deficiencies in reading, for example, and solve them early -- and solve
them early. And that's the whole spirit of reform that we're
proposing.
I want to pay the military more,
folks. In my budget, we increase military pay by a billion
dollars over the current pay. But having met all
these -- and set aside all the payroll taxes for Social Security --
that's what we do, $2.6 trillion over 10 years will only be spent on
Social Security. Now, that sounds like a lot of money, and
it is. Except, we've got much more money than that available
to figure out what to do with. And
so $2 trillion will be spent to pay down debt over the next 10 years.
And people say, well, you need -- why not
more? Why not 800 billion more, or maybe a trillion
more? And the reason why is because the debt doesn't come
due over -- the amount of debt that comes due in a 10-year period is $2
trillion. There is no need to pay a premium to retire debt
early. It would cost taxpayers more money, and that doesn't
make any sense.
We still have money left. We've got
pretty good cash flows at the federal level. And what I want
to do is set aside a trillion dollars for contingencies and with the
remaining money, which amounts to $1.6 trillion over 10 years, remember
who paid the money in the first place.
The point I want to make in this haven of
love, a place of deep concern about children's health, is that we can
fund priorities. If we're wise about how we budget money, we
can set aside important priorities and we can give people some money
back, and I think that's really important. I
know it's important at this moment in today's -- in history, because,
one, our economy is sputtering. And the money -- if we can
accelerate a tax relief plan to people like Tommy and Cynthia and
everybody else up here, it
will put more money in people's pockets, which will cause them to
spend, which will cause the economy to get a second wind, we hope.
Secondly, there are a lot of people paying
higher energy bills than they paid in the
past. It's like a tax. And I think it's wise if
we're able to prioritize and realize we have more money to help people
manage their own personal accounts, their own balance
sheets. A lot of people have consumer debt that they're
worried about. And there's a lot of focus on national debt;
I focus on the people's balance sheets as well.
And so I'm confident that not only can we meet
our priorities, but make sure a guy like Tommy Winfield and his family
who pay $1,380 of federal income taxes gets relief. In his
case, he will end up paying no federal income taxes under this
plan. His tax burden will go from $1,380 to
zero. Now, there are some sophisticates who will say that's
not very much money. But it's plenty for him.
MR. WINFIELD: Mr. President, let
them ask me.
THE PRESIDENT: Let the record note,
this was not rehearsed. (Laughter.)
At any rate, I appreciate the chance to come
and make my case for the budget, for the budget. And we had
a great rally in DeKalb County and it gave me an opportunity to remind
people that if you're concerned about the budget and you want there to
be fiscal sanity in Washington with priorities
set and funded, write your senators and your congressmen.
I have great faith in the people of
America. And coming to this hospital and seeing and feeling
the love on the floor we were on, knowing there's dedicated doctors,
loving nurses, spending a lot of time trying to help kids renews my
faith in the greatness of America.
I told the people earlier, the great strength
of this country is not because of our government; it is because of our
people. And this hospital is a living example of what I'm
talking about.
So, Dr. Woods, thank you for giving me a
chance to come and I'm looking forward to hearing from our other
panelists.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Tommy, I
appreciate you saying that.
You triggered something in my mind when you
said that. Again, I want everybody to understand we've set
priorities and funded them. There's a fundamental issue at
stake here. And that is, do you trust Tommy to spend his own
money? That's really one of the issues, if you think about
it.
And I want the people of Georgia to hear loud
and clear my plan trusts
the Tommys of the world to make the decisions. You see, I
think he -- you can best decide what's best for your family, better
than I can decide what's best for your family.
And I shouldn't be trying to decide what's
best for your family, after
we meet some common needs in the country. Defense is a
common need, health care, health research is a common
need. Education is a common need.
Again, I just want to repeat, please don't
hope that the federal government is going to wave a magic wand and
there will be educational excellence. As a matter of fact,
it's less likely there will be educational excellence if there's power
in Washington, D.C., because the schools in Georgia are different in
many ways from the issues that face Texas schools. And so we
should not try to federalize education, but there
are some things we can do by spending money wisely, and insisting upon
local control of schools and accountability.
After those needs are met, you're the person I
want spending your own money. As a matter of fact, it's not
the government's money; it's yours to
begin with. And that's kind of what I'm trying to get
changed, the whole attitude about the people's money.
As a matter of fact, we're not giving you any
money back. As a matter
of fact, I am trying to advocate that we're not going to take it in
the first place, so you get to keep it. You know, we're
spending on tax cuts. Well, that's kind of contradictory
language because it's your money. And
anyway, it's a mind set that I'm trying to get -- trying to impress
upon the people.
And the best way to get this done, in my
opinion, is to rally the will
of the people. I've got great faith in the American people
and that's what this is all about. And so I'm so honored
that you all are giving me a
chance. It's an educational experience for me, it's a
heartening experience for me, and it's a chance for me to move around
the country, to get outside of Washington and sit face to face with
real Americans who are working hard for their families, love their
kids, love their country.
And so it's an honor to be here,
Bill. And thank you all very much, Lydia, thanks to the
moms. I thank you for your courage and your love and God
bless you all.
Q Thank you, Mr.
President. God bless America.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank
you. Thanks for coming. (Applause.)
END 3:46 P.M. EST
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