For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 12, 2001
Remarks by the President to the Panama City Area Joint Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce Meeting
Marina Civic Center Panama City, Florida
1:38 P.M. CST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you
all. Sit down, Governor. (Laughter.) Well, I'm
glad I came. Thank you for the invitation.
AUDIENCE: We're glad to have
you. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: It's one of these
responsive meetings. (Laughter.) Governor, what a good man
he is. (Applause.) The key to our success is
pretty simple, we listen to our
mother. (Applause.) And she is still telling us
what to do. I'm listening about half the time.
I appreciate the two United States Congressmen
who are here. Joe, thank you very much and Allen, thank you
very much, as well. I'm honored to have you both
here. (Applause.)
I've had some good visits with both of the
members. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't
agree. But the thing about these two men is that we're going
to agree to be respectful to each other. And that's what
this country wants. (Applause.) I
want to thank the members of the Rotary. I want to thank the
members of the Chamber. I want to thank the economic
development folks who gave me an opportunity to come and talk about
what's on my mind. Walking in, the man from the Rotary said,
our slogan: is create awareness and take
action. And that's exactly why I'm here. I want
to create awareness about a common-sense budget, and ask you to take
action to help me get it passed. (Applause.)
It's good to see the leaders of the Florida
legislature, members elected to the state wide on the ticket here in
Florida. I want to thank you all for coming. I
know there's a lot of local officials here. I always believe
the government closest to the people is that which governs
best. (Applause.)
So I appreciate you all being
here. It was my honor to go to Tyndall today, to see the
good folks who wear the uniform of the United States
military. (Applause.) To tell them how much I
appreciate their service to the country. I'm reminded today
of how dangerous service can be. We lost some servicemen
today in Kuwait, on a training accident. I hope you'll join
me in a moment of silence for those soldiers and their families.
(A moment of silence was observed.)
THE PRESIDENT: God bless.
I'm here to talk about a
budget. And there's a lot of talk in Washington about
budgets. But here's what I believe. I believe the
people who can best affect the budget are the people who pay the bills
in the first place, the taxpayers of America. (Applause.)
Sometimes it seems like we tend to talk to
ourselves in Washington. And that's why I like to travel around the
country, talking to the people who have got most at stake in the budget
negotiations that go on in the nation's capital.
First, let me tell you that good budgeting
means setting priorities. And part of my travels around the country is
to explain where I think our priorities are. It is a
priority to make sure we pay the men and women who wear our uniform
good wages. It's a priority in my budget to do so.
(Applause.) It's a priority to make sure they're housed
well. (Applause.)
But it's also a priority to make sure if we
spend money, that we spend it wisely. That's why I've asked
the Secretary of Defense to do a bottom-to-top review about missions
and spending and research and development dollars, to come up with a
strategic vision of our military, not only today, but what the military
ought to look like tomorrow, to make sure that money is wisely spent
when we spend your money on the military.
You see, I think we have a fantastic
opportunity, not only to keep the peace today, but to redefine the
terms of war, to use our new technologies to redefine how the
battlefields are configured, so we have a better chance of keeping the
peace. So we'll set priorities. The first priority is the
people who wear the uniform. (Applause.)
The second priority is to make sure long-term
objectives are clearly set, and as we spend money, to make sure we meet
those objectives. But there's one priority of the
Commander-in-Chief that requires no money, and that's to make it clear
the mission of the military, to make clear the mission of those who
wear our uniform, and it is this: to be well-trained, to be
ready to fight and win war, and therefore prevent war from happening in
the first place. (Applause.)
A second priority has been
education. Now, we've increased the budget at the federal
level but, Governor, don't be too nervous. I remember where
I come from. I believe in local control of
schools. I strongly believe we ought to pass
power. (Applause.) I know your Secretary of
Education is here. It's good to see you,
Charlie. (Applause.)
The reason I mention Charlie is I believe that
the people who care more about the education of the children who live
in the Panhandle of Florida than anybody else are the citizens of this
part of the state. I know the Governor understands that, I
know Charlie understands that. (Applause.) And the people
in Washington have got to understand that. And that's why I
look forward to working with Congress to pass power out of Washington,
to provide as much flexibility with federal money at the local level as
needed, so that you all chart the path to excellence; so you figure out
whether or not children are learning and, if not, make sure they do.
The temptation in Washington is to say,
one-size-fits-all will work. But we know better than
that. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to the
education of our children. There needs to be local control
of schools. There needs to be strong accountability
measures. And when we find failure, we've got to free
parents to make different choices for their
children. (Applause.)
Social Security is a priority. I
know there is a lot of talk, and there was during the
campaign. I suspect there may be some, and for people who
are trying to keep your money in Washington, they'll say, well, you
can't have meaningful tax relief; otherwise the Social Security system
will fail. You read these polls, they're saying, you know,
do you want to take away somebody's Social Security check or do you
want to have tax relief. But that's not the choice. That's
not the choice that we have here, as we work on this budget.
Because we set aside every dime of payroll
taxes for one thing, and that is to spend it on Social
Security. All this business about threatening people's
Social Security checks is just not real and it's not
valid. The Congress and the White House agree that all the
payroll taxes ought to be spent on only one thing, and that's the
Social Security systems. (Applause.)
There's a lot of talk about health care and
there should be. The budget I submitted to Congress doubles
the Medicare budget, for example. The budget I submitted to Congress
increases by two times the amount of people who will be taken care of
in community health centers.
Now, we focus on health, and there is money in
the budget to do so. And so we've set priorities. Education
is a priority, keeping the peace is a priority, the health care of our
citizens is a priority, retirement accounts are a
priority. And there is still money left over.
But the difference between this administration
and what happens in the past is that we grow discretionary spending by
4 percent. And I said, well, that seems like a reasonable
number. But that's not what happened last time
around. Last time, as the Congress was trying to get out of
town, they had a bidding contest, and the discretionary spending
increased by 8 percent. That's a huge amount of
money. The baselines of the budget were that much higher,
and we're adding on top of that.
And yet there are some saying, he doesn't want
to meet basic needs. What we need in Washington is fiscal discipline;
we need priorities. (Applause.) We need to set priorities
and fund it, so our budget increases by 4 percent. And, by
the way, just so you understand, the accounting talk there in the
nation's capital, the definition of a budget cut is when numbers don't
increase to expected levels.
So like, for example, if the baseline is one
and the expected level is 1.5 and I propose 1.4, that's called a
spending cut. It's the darnedest accounting system I've ever
seen. (Laughter.) That's why I'm trying to bring
some common sense into the budgeting of your
money. (Applause.)
In the budget I submitted to the Congress, we
pay down debt by $2 trillion. (Applause.) Over
the next 10 years, we will reduce the amount of debt at the federal
level by $2 trillion. But let me also remind you all, as we
talk about numbers, remember there is a lot of debt around our
society. There is debt at the federal level and we do a good
job of paying down a lot. But there is also consumer debt,
credit card debt, debt that burdens the working people.
So as we talk about budgets, I just want you
all to also keep in mind the budgets of the families who live in your
neighborhood, budgets of people struggling to get ahead. You
bet we're going to pay down debt at the national level. But
we need to be mindful of the debt that burdens those who are struggling
to get ahead and get into the middle class, as well.
Then I set aside a trillion dollars for
contingencies. That can mean money to help our
farmers. And one of the things you'll find out about my
administration is I respect and understand the importance of American
agriculture, not only for our domestic consumption, but for
international trade purposes as well. Farming is a very
important part of our vision for the future. (Applause.)
And after setting priorities and growing the
budget at what I believe is a reasonable rate of 4 percent and setting
aside the payroll taxes, paying down debt and putting aside a trillion
over 10 years for contingencies, there is still money left
over. And that's the fundamental debate.
There's a lady in -- there's a lady in Iowa,
western Iowa, a grandmother who stood up at an event I
had. And she said, I've seen a lot of children and
grandchildren go through my house. And every time I leave a
plate of cookies on the table, they eat it. And that's how I
view surpluses. That's what I'm afraid is going to happen if
we don't have fiscal discipline, and are willing to say that the
surplus is the people's money. It's not the government's
money. (Applause.)
It's the people's money. And that's
the important thing for the members of Congress and the Senate to keep
in mind. It's not the government's money. It's
your money to begin with. And oh, there are some priorities
that need to be kept, and we're keeping them.
But there's another priority, as far as I'm
concerned, and that is, how best to help American families to help
themselves; how best to help people access the middle
class. And there's another important priority. And that is,
let people have money as quickly as possible, that otherwise would go
to government, to provide a second wind to an economy that's slowing
down. (Applause.)
One of the things that concerns me about tax
relief is what they call targeted tax relief. That means
federal officials get to decide who's targeted in, and who's targeted
out. To me, that's not good public policy. I don't think we
ought to try to pick winners and losers in Washington,
D.C. I think everybody's a winner in America, and I think if
you pay taxes, you ought to get tax relief. And so I
submitted a plan that reduces all rates, on everybody who pays
taxes. We simplified the code. (Applause.)
This tax code of ours is unfair. It
is unfair to people who are struggling to get
ahead. Incredibly enough, if somebody has -- a single mom,
for example, raising two children, if she earns more money above
$22,000, she pays a higher marginal rate on every additional dollar she
earns than somebody who is successful. And she looses her
earned income tax credit, goes into the 15 percent bracket for the
first time, and pays payroll taxes. She's paying nearly 50
percent on every dollar. This is somebody struggling to get
ahead. Somebody who's working the toughest job in America,
by the way, and that's raising children on her own. (Applause.)
And yet, the tax code we have makes it
unfair. And so we've reduced the bottom rate from 15 percent
to 10 percent, and increased the child credit from $500 to $1,000, to
make it easier for that person to realize her
dreams. (Applause.) The message is, the harder
you work, the more money you have in your pocket in
America. The harder you work, the easier it is to get ahead,
and not the other way around.
But we also drop the top rate from 39.6 to 33
percent. And I know that's created a lot of howling in
Washington, but I think you can help remind people over whom you've got
some influence that the whole notion of dropping the top rate is to
stimulate growth in the small business sector of
America. There are hundreds of small business owners who are
unincorporated, who are sole proprietors, who may be organized along
Subchapter S lines, that pay that high marginal rate. And by
dropping the rate, we're sending a clear message to America, the role
of government is not to create wealth; the role of government is to
create an environment in which a small business owner can flourish, in
which the entrepreneur can realize their dream. (Applause.)
The small business owner is a job
creator. The small business owner also represents the best
of America, which says if you dream big and work hard, you can own your
own business. And, by the way, when it comes time to pass
that business on to your heir, we need to get rid of the death tax to
make sure you can do so. (Applause.)
The House moved out our cut on marginal
rates. I look forward to working with them on the rest of
the package, including doing something about the marriage penalty and
the -- we send the wrong signal. (Applause.) Our tax code
ought to encourage marriage. We ought to encourage
families. We ought not to penalize people who said "I do" at
the altar. (Applause.)
So there is a lot of work to be done and I am
here to ask for your help. Instead of sending people your
check, why don't you send them your check and send them an e-mail while
you're at it. Why don't you let your senators know that you
think tax relief is not only good for the economy, but you think tax
relief is good for working families here in the state of Florida.
And let me talk about two such people, Darrell
Calhoun and Andrea Calhoun. They're here with their
children. Raise your hand, Darrell. Darrell is a small
business owner. He owns a fence company. Today in
America, he pays $1,200 in federal income taxes. When this
plan is fully enacted, he will pay zero in federal income
taxes. (Applause.) He and Andrea are raising
Garrett and Madison.
Oh, I know some will say, well, $1,200 isn't
all that much. It's a lot to them. It's a lot to
people who are paying high energy bills today in
America. It's a lot to people who struggle with their own
personal debt. I think it makes sense to set
priorities. I think it makes sense to pay down debt at the
national level. I think it makes sense to make sure the
retirement systems work.
But I think instead of spending on bigger
government, I think we ought to trust people with their own
money. I'd rather have these good people spend the $1,200
than the people in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
And that's the fundamental debate that's
taking place, and I'm glad we're discussing it. It's really
what democracy is about. It would be better if they did
everything the President said. (Laughter.)
Sometimes it doesn't work that
way. But they darn sure better listen to the
people. And the people can have a large say as to whether or
not we want fiscally responsible government in Washington, D.C., or
whether we're going to continue those spending orgies that spend your
money on bigger and bigger and bigger baselines of budgets.
It's time to have fiscal sanity in our
nation's capital, and it's time to remember who pays the
bills. It's the working people of America who pay the
bills. (Applause.) It's so important for those of
us who hold the high honor of representing you to trust the
people. After all, that's the strength of America, the
people. But the great strength of the country is not our
governments. The great strength of the country are the
people. The people who will help to make this country the -- fulfil
its promise for everyone who's lucky to live here.
I say that because the common acts of decency
and courtesy that take place neighborhood to neighborhood are really
part of the strength of America. The fact that there are
moms and dads who become Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Club
leaders that take a child around the shoulders and say, somebody loves
you, and somebody cares, that's the strength of
America. (Applause.)
The fact that there are little centers of love
that exist because somebody says, what can I do to
help? What can I do to live that common call to love a
neighbor like I'd like to be loved myself. Now that's the
strength of America. The great strength of our country lie
in the hearts and souls of the American citizens. My job is
to lift the spirit of the country. I'll argue on your
behalf, and I'm going to argue until I get a bill to
sign. It's out of the House, come on out of the Senate, and
I'll sign it. (Applause.) And I'll argue on your behalf.
We'll have our agreements, and we'll have our
disagreements. But my pledge is to have those agreements and
disagreements in a respectful way. But there's more to the job than
just arguing on your behalf when it comes to fiscal sanity in
Washington. The job really is to lift the spirit of the
country, to call upon the best, to remind the moms and dads, your most
important job is to love your children with all your heart and all your
soul. To call upon the compassion of America, and by doing
so, we as a nation can unite, and we as a nation can hold out that
great beacon of hope we want it to be for every person who lives in our
country.
What an honor it is to represent you all, and
what an honor it is to be the President of the greatest country on the
face of the earth. Write your Senators, let your Congressmen
know, and God bless. Thank you all. (Applause.)
END
2:00 P.M. CST
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