For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 8, 2001
Remarks by the President at North Dakota Welcome Event North Dakota State University Bison Arena Fargo, North Dakota
5:18 P.M. CST THE PRESIDENT: Thank
you very much. The air may be cold, but the reception is
unbelievably warm. (Applause.) Thank you all for
that warm reception. Governor, thank you very
much. I appreciate you and Mike meeting me at the
airport. It's good to see public servants, such as your
Governor, who are willing to do what they think is right. He
follows the footsteps of a good friend of mine, a man who did a fine
job as the governor of North Dakota over the past years, and that's Ed
Schafer. It's good to see Ed here as
well. (Applause.)
I don't want to
jump the gun on my speech here, but I just got off the phone with the
Speaker of the House. He informed me that the House of
Representatives just took a major vote on -- a vote on a major portion
of my tax relief package, and by the margin of 230 to 198, the tax rate
cut passed the House of Representatives. (Applause.)
The American people -- the American people had
a victory today. The American family had a victory
today. The American entrepreneur had a victory
today. One House down, and now the Senate to
go. (Applause.)
I'm here for a lot
of reasons; one is to ask for your help. I wasn't sure how
many folks were going to show up to hear a budget speech. It
seems like a lot of people are interested in the national budget, and
more particularly, your own personal budgets. (Applause.)
And so I'm here to ask for you -- if you like
what you hear today, to maybe e-mail some of the good folks from the
United States Senate from your
state. (Applause.) If you like what you hear, why
don't you just give them a call or write them a letter and let them
know that the people are speaking. You see, one of the
important things for the President, if the truth be known, people who
hold federal office, to make sure you get out of Washington, D.C., on a
regular basis. (Applause.)
It is
important to make sure you get outside the D.C. scene and listen to the
people. I'll tell you, I love traveling our
country. I'm so proud to be landing in Air Force One and
getting off the airplane and driving into this hall and seeing people
lining the streets, waving at the office of the
President. It makes me proud to be your
President. (Applause.)
No, they
wave because they respect the office. And sometimes, at
least in this state, it seems like the people like the occupant, too.
(Applause.) It's a huge honor to be your
President. It's a huge honor.
One
of the things I hope the people figure out about me is that I like to
bring common-sense approaches to our government. Take
budgeting. It seems like we need to have a common-sense
approach on how we spend the people's money, which means it's important
to set priorities. You set priorities in your family
budgets, the federal government ought to set priorities with your
money. (Applause.)
Let me describe
some of our priorities. Educating our children is a
priority. (Applause.) But, lest you think I
forgot where I came from, I want you to understand I firmly believe
that the people who are best able to run the schools in North Dakota
are the citizens of North Dakota. I believe in strong --
(applause) -- mine is an administration -- mine is an administration
that strongly supports local control of schools.
But we also understand in Washington that we
need to set high standards, that every child, regardless of his or her
background, can learn, that we must have the highest of high
expectations, and that we must work with states and local jurisdictions
to measure so that we know whether or not we're leaving any child
behind in America today.
Not only today do we
have good news out of the House of Representatives, but the Senate
Education Committee passed our education reform package
20-0. (Applause.) We're making progress because
these pieces of legislation are right for America. These
aren't political documents, this is public policy that's good for
American families and American children. So education is one
of our priorities.
We've increased spending
for education, but we've also insisted upon more flexibility so
governors and local folks can use federal dollars to meet their
specific needs. One size does not fit all when it comes to
the education of American children. (Applause.)
Secondly, a priority is to keep the
peace. In order to keep the peace, our military must be
well-paid and well-housed and well-trained. (Applause.) So
my budget sets aside money for increasing military pay. But as
importantly, it is important to have a commander-in-chief who sets a
clear mission for the military. (Applause.) And
the mission of the United States military must be well -- to be
well-trained and well-prepared to fight and win war, and therefore
prevent war from happening in the first place. (Applause.)
Another priority is the health care of our
citizens. We've set aside money in the budget to make sure
the working uninsured have got the capacity to purchase health
insurance. We've set aside money in the budget to make sure
we fulfill the promise to our senior citizens, by doubling the Medicare
budget over the next 10 years.
We've set
aside money in the budget to increase the number of community health
centers around America, to make sure the poor have got access to
primary care. We've set our priorities, and the health care
of our citizenry is a priority.
Another
priority is the retirement accounts of the U.S. citizens. We've set
aside all the money -- all of the money aimed for Social Security will
be spent on only one thing: Social
Security. (Applause.)
The days of
the Congress dipping into the Social Security trust for other programs
are over. (Applause.) And, by the way, down the
road, we're going to be thinking differently about Social
Security. You see, the Social Security trust now only earns
2 percent on your money.
AUDIENCE: Booooo!
THE
PRESIDENT: Yes. I'd be booing,
too. (Laughter.) What we need to do is to give
younger workers the option of taking some of your own money and
managing it in personal savings accounts. (Applause.)
Ours is a budget that sets
priorities. We've actually grown what they call the
discretionary spending by 4 percent. That's greater than the
rate of inflation. That's greater than the increase in
disposable income. That's a significant increase in expenditures.
But the debate is, it's not as big as some of
the big spenders in Washington would like it to be. You see,
they're used to a different attitude out of the White
House. The discretionary spending at the end of last year
increased by 8 percent. So we're saying we're going to meet
our needs, but we're just not going to spend the people's money quite
as extravagantly as has been done in the
past. (Applause.) That's called common-sense
fiscal responsibility. (Applause.) That's the kind of
message the people in North Dakota like to hear. (Applause.)
I was in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the other day,
taking this message around to the people. And a grandmother
gave a speech, or talked a little bit. And she said, she's
had a lot of children go through her house, and a lot of grandchildren
go through their house. And every time she has left cookies
on the table, they got eaten. (Laughter.) That's
kind of how I view the federal budget. If we leave money
sitting around on the table, it will get spent. And so what
we need to do is set priorities. (Applause.) And clear
priorities, and work to achieve those
priorities. (Applause.)
Another
priority is to pay down debt. In our budget we've submitted,
we've increased discretionary spending by 4 percent, but we've paid
down $2 trillion of debt over 10 years. It's the biggest
amount of debt that any nation has ever paid off that passed in
history, in the history. (Applause.)
Increased spending, we've paid down debt and we set aside another $1
trillion over 10 years for contingencies. An important
contingency could be making sure that we get money into the ag sector,
like we've done in the past year. (Applause.) We
certainly hope that's not the case, we hope that the ag economy
recovers. We hope that we can increase demand for North
Dakota products all around the world. (Applause.)
By the way, my attitude is this: If
given a level playing field, if we have free trade, true free trade,
North Dakota farmers can compete anywhere, any place, any
time. I would like our farmers in America to be feeding the
world. And therefore, I am going to work hard to open up
markets. When it comes to international trade discussions,
the American farmer is not going to be treated like a stepchild
anymore. (Applause.) The American farmer -- the American
farmer will be a primary concern. We shouldn't use food as a
diplomatic weapon, from this point forward. We ought to
implement the Food For Peace program. But if we have an
emergency in the farm economy, we've set aside contingency money to do
that. Contingency money.
There you
go. (Laughter.) And guess what,
though? By not overspending on the discretionary count,
there's still money left over, and the fundamental debate in Washington
is what do we do with it? What do we do with your
money? (Applause.) The fundamental question is,
do we increase the size of government?
AUDIENCE: Nooo!
THE
PRESIDENT: Or do we remember that the surplus is not the
government's money, it's the people's
money? (Applause.) The other day, I noticed that
the cash flow into the country -- the surplus for the first four months
was $72 billion. That's significantly higher than the first
four months of last year. It tells me that the American
people are overtaxed. That's what that
says. (Applause.)
When you're
running surpluses that big -- when you're running surpluses that big,
particularly with your economy beginning to sputter, it ought to say
something loud and clear, if you take a common-sense approach to
government. And that means the folks are
overtaxed. And if you're overcharged for something, you
ought to demand a refund. And I stepped in front of the
Congress and demanded a refund on your behalf. (Applause.)
And so, as I mentioned -- so, as I mentioned,
the United States House of Representatives began the process, the long,
arduous process of providing tax relief for the American
people. Today, they took a hold of our plan to reduce
marginal rates on everybody who pays taxes and, as I mentioned, they
passed that piece of legislation. I want you to hear some of
the principles involved.
First of all, my
administration did not believe in what they call targeted tax cuts,
because I don't believe that the federal government ought to try to
pick and choose winners in the tax code. Everybody who pays
taxes ought to get tax relief. (Applause.)
So we cut all rates. We drop the
top rate from 39.6 to 33 percent. And there is a lot of squawking
about that. But let me explain to you the
rationale. First of all, there ought to be some principles
involved at the federal level, and a principle is the federal
government should take no more than a third of anybody's
check. (Applause.)
But, also, a
principle is -- a second principle is the role of government is not to
create wealth; the role of government is to create an environment in
which the entrepreneur and the small business person and the dreamer
and worker can realize his or her
dreams. (Applause.) And the facts are, and the
facts are, by far, the vast majority of small business people in
America, the backbone of our economy, pay the highest rate possible,
because most small businesses are unincorporated. Most are
sub-chapter S -- many are sub-chapter S. And so by dropping
the top rate from 39.6 percent to 33 percent, we're sending a clear
message to America that the small business person, the entrepreneur is
the backbone of the future of this country. (Applause.)
Our tax code is unfair. It's unfair
to the small business people. It's unfair to people struggling to get
into the middle class. You're on the outskirts of poverty,
and you're working hard to get ahead, and you're trying to raise
children -- and by the way, being a single mom, raising children, is
the toughest job in America. That's the toughest job in this
country. (Applause.) And we penalize those on the
outskirts of poverty trying to get ahead, trying to get into the middle
class.
If you're making $20,000 a year, and
you're earning money, for every addition -- you're raising two
kids. For every additional dollar you earn, the way they've
got the earned income tax credit, and the way they've put you in the
brackets, is that you pay a higher marginal rate on that dollar than
someone who's successful. That's the facts in the tax
code. For every additional dollar you earn, if you are
making $22,000 a year raising two children as a single mom, you pay
nearly 50 percent on that dollar. That's not right in
America. That's not what this country stands for.
And so our tax code not only serves as a
stimulus to foreign capital and the private sector for small business
growth, ours also makes the tax code fair for people struggling to get
ahead. We dropped the bottom rate from 15 percent to 10
percent. We doubled the child credit from $500 to $1,000, we
made the code fair for people working to get
ahead. (Applause.)
The marriage
penalty is unfair. (Applause.) And the Congress
will be taking that up pretty soon to make sure the marriage penalty is
fixed. But let me tell you what else is
unfair. And if anybody understands it, it's the good people
of this state. The death tax is
unfair. (Applause.) It is particularly unfair for
American farmers and ranchers. That's particularly unfair.
There is a lot of talk about making sure that
we have green spaces and open spaces, and that's good and that's
important. But probably the best reform to make sure that
happens is to eliminate the death tax so family farmers aren't forced
to sell their farms before they want to. (Applause.)
With us today is the Wightman
family. You probably -- maybe you know them, maybe you
don't. But they're here for a reason. Because
behind every tax relief plan are real Americans, Americans who will
benefit. These good folks both work, they've got Melissa and
Paige. Melissa's 14, Paige is 10. They right now
pay $3,700 in federal income taxes. When our plan is fully
implemented, these good folks will save $1,900. (Applause.)
The reason I bring up the Wighmtans is because
I want America to know what our philosophy is when it comes to the
people's money. Once we set priorities, once we pay down
debt, once we set aside contingencies, it's important for Congress and
the United States Senate to send this message to the American
people: We trust you with your own money. It's
your money to begin with. (Applause.)
Instead of figuring out new programs our new
ways to get reelected, why don't we figure out ways to let the
Wightmans plan for their future? No, I know some say, well $1,900
isn't a lot. Just ask them what it means. Ask the people
who are paying higher energy bills what it means. Ask the
people who are struggling under consumer, credit card debt what it
means to have their own money back. As a matter of fact, we
shouldn't take it in the first place. (Applause.)
I'm here with a message. My message
is with fiscal discipline, with planning, with leadership, our nation
can fund important priorities. We can pay down
debt. We can meet emergencies or
contingencies. But in order to make sure this economy gets a
second wind, we better start passing money back quickly.
And so not only should we have tax relief, we
need to make a lot of it retroactive. We need to get money
in the pockets -- (applause) -- so the President gets to make some
suggestions, gets to make some phone calls on occasion to
members. But the best way I can garner support is to come to
you and ask for your help. And to say, there is nothing more
powerful than the voice of the people. There is nothing that
will get anybody's attention more than good, hardworking
people. Standing up, saying, let's have some common sense up
in the Nation's Capitol about our money. (Applause.)
And it's so important to trust the American
people, so important for our government to trust people, because the
people are the strength of this country. This is a fabulous
land, it's the greatest country on the face of the
earth. (Applause.) Not only -- not only because of the
fantastic principles -- we believe in freedom of religion, freedom of
press, the freedoms to achieve your dream, regardless of where you're
from, but it's the greatest land on the face of the earth because of
our people, God-fearing, hardworking, neighborly citizens all across
America. That's the true strength of the country.
(Applause.)
I'll be involved a lot -- part of
my job is to argue for fiscal sanity in Washington. Part of
my job is to represent your interests when it comes to how your money
is spent. A big part of my job will be to work to keep the
peace by making sure our military is strong.
But a significant part of my job is to invigorate the American spirit,
that spirit that says when a neighbor sees somebody in need, what can I
do to help. You see, the strength of America, if it is in
the hearts and souls of our citizens, it must be used to make sure
people aren't left behind, that the downtrodden is lifted up, that
people in need get help. Often times we turn to
government. But the true love and true compassion in this
country begins when neighbors help neighbors in need.
So if you've got a mentoring program in the
state of North Dakota that needs some help, say, what can I do to
help? If you've got a church program that's trying to help
people that are hungry, take the extra step and see if you can't
help. If you know some people that are wondering whether or
not somebody loves them, take a little extra time, put your arm around
them, and say, we do. I also want you all to remember that
the most important job any of us will have, the most important job if
you happen to be a mother or dad, isn't president or governor, is to
love your children with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your
mind. (Applause.)
No, we're a
blessed nation. We can achieve anything we set our mind
to. We can have sound fiscal policy. We'll work
hard to keep the peace. But most of all, we can make sure this great
American experience shines brightly for every citizen, everybody in
this great country. People are willing to role up their
sleeves and work, because we've got a country of people who are willing
to roll up their sleeves and help.
I can't
tell you what an honor it is to be your President.
(Applause.) I am so grateful, I am so grateful that so many
came out to say hello. God bless you all, and God bless
America. (Applause.)
END
5:53
P.M. CST
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