For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 7, 2001
Remarks by the President to the Staff at the Department of Treasury
Department of Treasury Washington, D.C.
2:10 P.M. EST
THE
PRESIDENT: Thank you. I'm glad the Secretary
invited me back. It's always nice to call on your
neighbors. And as you know, we're neighbors. I
get to look at this majestic building every day, and I was looking
forward to the opportunity to come over and thank all the folks who
work here.
We're in
this deal together. Our job is to make sure that this great
country fulfills its promise for everybody. And I know a lot
of times people don't give you the proper -- your proper due, your
proper thanks for working on behalf of the American
people. So, from the 43rd President, thank you for what you
do for America. I appreciate your hard
work. (Applause.)
I hope
you're as excited about your job as I am. (Laughter.) About
mine. (Laughter.) It's a huge honor to be your
President. It really is. And it's a huge honor to
be the President of the people. As you know, I'm taking to
the road on occasion. Tomorrow I'm going to Fargo, North
Dakota, and South Dakota and Louisiana. I decided to drop in
on my own home state of Texas for the weekend. But it is so
refreshing to be able to take a message to the people that in
Washington we listen to you, that we understand we're the servants of
the people.
So I look
forward to going to work every morning here, but I also look forward to
taking the message that I'm -- the particular message that I'm dealing
with at the moment to the people. Right now we're talking
about tax relief and tax reform. I've got a good partner in
this effort in your Secretary.
By the way,
you'll find him to be a pretty darn unusual man.
(Laughter.) He is successful. He thinks outside
the box in a positive way. When given a task he's
performance-oriented. He's going to expect the same of you
all, but he'll be eminently fair. He will
listen. He will work to build a team. That's the
kind of man he is. But first things first -- I got to see
this firsthand when I swore him in -- he's got his priorities
straight. He loves his family. His wife and
children and grandchildren are his priority. And that's
important -- that's important.
We'll spend
a lot of time talking about taxes right now -- and by the way, I feel
like we're going to have a pretty good day in the House of
Representatives tomorrow. The message is slowly but surely
getting out that we've got enough money coming into the Treasury to
meet important obligations, but we've also got enough money to remember
who paid the bills in the first place. And those are the
working folks, the people who pay the taxes.
And I think
we're going to have a good day tomorrow. And there will be
other issues we'll be talking about. Of course, the Treasury
Department, and many of you work on issues relating to trade and
collection, law enforcement. There's a lot of issues that
take place here. But there's no bigger issue than to remember
priorities in life. There's no bigger issue -- the way I
like to put it is this: there's no bigger issue for the
President to remind the moms and dads of America, if you happen to have
a child, be fortunate to have a child, your biggest priority is going
to be to love your children. There's no bigger
responsibility. (Applause.)
Some might
say, well, that just doesn't seem to fit in the Treasury
Department. (Laughter.) No, it fits
everywhere. It fits all departments, because our jobs are to
not only represent the people, but our job is to work on the collective
will of the country, to uplift this country, to make sure the best is
available for all who are willing to work for it. And it
starts with teaching our children right from wrong.
If you find
a neighbor in need, I know inside the walls here, people go out of
their way to mentor. And I want to thank you for that. If
you're in your neighborhood, in your community, and you find a neighbor
in need and you turn to that neighbor and say, what can I do to help, I
want to thank you for that. The greatness of America really
is as a result of the collective hearts of decent, caring people.
At any
rate, I love being your President. I'm honored to be on the
same team that you're on. And I'm so pleased that you've got
a really good man running this department, a man who will remind you on
a constant basis -- (applause) -- a man who will remind you, and
probably remind me on occasion, that it's the results that matter, that
working hard is good, but that we all stand here to represent the
American people.
Thank you
for your hard work, and God bless you all.
END
2:15 P.M. EST
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