For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 26, 2001
Remarks by the President in Billings, Montana Welcome Event
Metrapark Expo and Convention Center Billings, Montana
5:10 P.M. MST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you
all. This is my first time in your beautiful
state. (Applause.) And I want to thank you for
the warm welcome.
Before I begin and say the thanks, I do want
you all to join me in a moment of silent prayer for the two soldiers,
men who wore the uniform of America, who lost their lives in Germany
today; and two of our pilots who are missing over Great
Britain. Would you please join me in a moment of silent
prayer, please.
(A moment of silence was observed.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank
you. God bless them, God bless their families and God bless
America.
I first want to say thanks to my friend, your
former Governor. It seems like you still remember who he
is. (Applause.) I, of course, know who he
is. I had no stronger ally, a good man, as you know and,
gosh, maybe one of these days we might convince him to get his
political uniform back on. (Applause.)
I appreciate so very much getting to know your
current Governor. (Applause.) The first time I met her was
at the White House, we had a pretty fancy dinner. It was the
first fancy dinner we had at the White House; I invited all the
governors over. And she came and did just fine, I want you
to know. (Laughter.) Now, her husband on the
other hand -- (laughter.) I don't know where he rented his
tux, but he looked quite handsome.
At any rate, it was an honor to know your
Governor. People say the kindest things about
her. She's a good, strong leader and I know you're proud to
call her Governor and proud to call the Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant
Governor. I want to thank them both for being up here
today. Thank you all for coming. (Applause.)
I'm particularly proud to be here with the
Montana congressional
delegation. (Applause.) Fine
Americans. Fine Americans, all starting with the senior
member of the delegation, the Senior Senator who is a man who's got
enormous power in Washington. He's the kind of man who has
got enough power that if he likes what I have to say, and you like what
I have to say, I'm confident he'll get it done. (Applause.)
And I flew into town today with Senator Burns,
a man who is not a very shy, retiring
fellow. (Laughter.) After all, he was an
auctioneer. But I'm looking forward to having his vote when
these bills start hitting the floor. He looked in and there
we were, about 35,000 feet and he said, President, you're doing the
right thing.
And we already know how this man is going to
vote. We've had a couple of tough votes on the floor of the
House and, Congressman, thank you for your strong support, you did the
right thing for the people in Montana. (Applause.)
I want to talk a little bit about the
budget. There's a lot of talk about the budget, and I found
it's much better for me to take my case directly to the
people. Sometimes the word coming out of Washington gets
filtered. (Applause.) Sometimes it's hard to get
a direct message to the people. So I found the best way to
get the message out is to travel the country. (Applause.)
And it's pretty healthy to do so,
too. Sometimes some of us in Washington forget where we come
from. And that's why it's good for the President to get out
and remind people of who matters. And the people that matter
are the hard-working people of America who pay this nation's bills,
that's who matters. (Applause.)
I'd like people to know my perspective of how
we're going to spend your money. I'd like to characterize it
as a common-sense way of spending the people's money, which means we
start with priorities. Anytime you set a budget it's
important to set priorities. I'd like to explain a couple of
the priorities in my budget.
Education is a priority in my
budget. (Applause.) Our education budget -- the
Department of Education receives the largest increase of any department
in our budget request to the Congress. It's one thing to ask
for more money, but it's always important to remember where you come
from.
I used to be the governor of a great
state. I used to (applause) -- there you
are. (Laughter.) You obviously are not checking
passports at the border. (Laughter.) Thank you
for waving those flags. (Applause.) And the reason I said
that is because I remember how I really didn't like all the federal
rules and strings, the federal government centralized authority telling
the people how to run the school system. That's why we're
asking for more money. We're also asking Congress to free up
local folks to make the right decisions for the
children. The people who care more about the children in
Montana are the citizens of Montana. (Applause.)
One size doesn't fit all when it comes to
educating our nation's children. So, on the one hand, we're
asking for more money; on the other hand, we're asking for power to be
passed out of Washington, D.C, with as much flexibility and authority
so the good Governor and Lieutenant Governor and legislators and school
board officials can help chart the path of excellence for every child.
But in our budget and in our plans for
education reform, we also ask this: we ask that in return
for getting help that you, the people of Montana, or the people of any
state, develop an accountability system that says to the good
taxpayers, our children are learning; an accountability system that
will tell us whether or not progress is being made.
See, I think it's important for us to be a
results oriented nation, a nation that measures
progress. And as importantly, a nation that determines
whether children need help early, before it's too late. Our
mission in America is to make sure that we reform schools where reform
is needed, so that not one child in America is left behind as we go
into the 21st century. (Applause.)
I mentioned the military, and one of our
priorities in this administration is to strengthen the
military. It's to lift the morale of the
military. (Applause.) And so in my budget, we ask
Congress to increase the pay for the men and women who wear the
uniform, to make sure they're better paid and better
housed. (Applause.)
A priority is a strong
military. But it's one thing to spend more
money. It's also important to have a Commander-in-Chief who
sets a clear mission for the military of the United
States. And the mission is this: be prepared to fight and
win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first
place. (Applause.)
There are new threats that face our
nation. Ours will be an administration that is realistic,
that brings common sense to our foreign policy. We'll
address the threats as we see them. I'm concerned about
rouge nations and leaders that may try to hold the United States or our
allies hostage.
Not only must we make sure that our men and
women are trained well, we must make sure we have the equipment
necessary to keep the peace; the research and development to make sure
we have the systems that says to those who may try to hold
our nation hostage, don't try it, don't dare. We need a
missile defense system that prevents the world from being held hostage
by terrorism. (Applause.)
The budget we've submitted to the Congress
doubles the Medicare budget over a 10 year period of
time. It also increases the number of folks who will be
served at community health centers. It provides money for
the working uninsured, so they can buy health insurance. No,
we focus on the health care of the citizens of this country.
The budget I submitted, the budget I submitted
ends for once and for all the old, tired, stale political rhetoric that
says somebody like Bush is going to come along and affect the Social
Security of our nation's seniors, the old scare tactics politics, that
for too long has dominated the political scene.
I hope once and for all Republicans and
Democrats will quit all this business about trying to frighten people,
because in the budget I submitted to the Congress, it sets aside all
the money aimed for payroll taxes for only one thing, social -- I mean,
all the money from payroll taxes aimed for Social Security for only one
thing, and one thing only, Social Security. (Applause.)
No, I know, there are some who want to keep
all your money in Washington, and they'll say what they have to say to
do so. But don't get fooled by this rhetoric about Social
Security being threatened. Those days are over
with. Those days are over with. Those who need to
worry about Social Security are not those who rely on Social Security
today, or those near retirement. The folks that better hope
we have a Congress and a President who's willing to think differently
on Social Security are the younger workers who are going to have to pay
for us baby boomers when we retire.
The debate will happen later on in the year,
but I'm going to have Congress take a hard look at letting younger
workers take their own money and manage it in the safety of managed
savings accounts, investment accounts. (Applause.)
Those are our priorities. Paying
off debt is a priority. In the budget I submitted to the
United States Congress, we pay down $2 trillion worth of our
debt. In a 10-year period, we pay down $2
trillion. People say, why not more? Well, because
we'd have to pay a premium to pay down any more debt. That's
all the debt that's coming up to be paid off in a 10-year
period. It makes no sense, certainly not any common sense,
to pay a premium for debt that hasn't come due yet. So this
administration isn't going to do that. But we do pay down $2
trillion of debt. It's a significant payment down of our
nation's debt. We set priorities and we pay down debt.
But part of the problem is that I only grow
discretionary spending by 4 percent. Now, by the way, 4
percent is greater than the rate of inflation; 4 percent is a bigger
increase than most people's paycheck increased. Surely,
Congress -- surely, Congress can keep the spending down to 4
percent. It's going to require a new mentality, though, you
see. Because discretionary spending at the end of last year increased
by 8 percent.
It's like they had a bidding contest to see
how -- the guy who spent the most got out of town first. And
that's not the right way to deal with your money. We need
fiscal sanity in Washington, D.C. We need to set
priorities. We need to make sure that we don't overgrow the
federal budget. (Applause.)
And by bringing fiscal discipline to
Washington, by having the discretionary budget that increases at 4
percent, not at 8 percent, there's money left over. And the
big debate is what to do with it. Now, by the way, before I
tell you what I think we ought to do with it, before I tell you what we
think we ought to do, I want to also tell you that within our budget,
over a 10-year period there's a trillion dollars for contingencies.
So, set priorities; set aside payroll taxes
for Social Security; we double the Medicare budget; we increase
discretionary spending at 4 percent; we set aside money for
contingencies. One contingency may be a continuing problem
in our agricultural sector. There's money set aside for
contingencies. There's still money left over, and that's
where the clash of wills is coming in Washington, D.C.
Let me tell you the principles that I made my
decision. First of all, that money left over -- we call it
the surplus -- that money is not the government's money, it is the
people's money. (Applause.) The government didn't
earn that money. You earned the
money. (Applause.)
In the first four months of this year, the
cash flow coming into the treasury exceeded expectations by $40
billion, in spite of the fact that our economy has been sputtering a
little bit. During the first four months of the fiscal year,
$40 billion excess cash came in. It sounds like to me
somebody is being over-charged. (Applause.) And
we need to ask for a refund. (Applause.)
And that's what I'm here to talk
about. I'm here to talk about the tax relief plan that I
have submitted to the United States Congress. It starts with
this. It says, let's reduce all rates. I know
there are some in Washington who like to talk about what they call,
targeted tax cuts. Let me tell you what that means. That
means that the folks in Washington get to decide who the winners are
and who doesn't win when it comes to tax relief.
That's not our view of government,
folks. Our view of government says if you pay taxes you
ought to get relief. (Applause.) We simplify the
code. We try to make this cumbersome tax code easier for
folks to understand. This tax code of ours is patently
unfair. It's unfair to people at the bottom end of the
economic ladder. If you're a single mom in the state of
Montana, trying to raise two children -- by the way, you'd be working
the toughest job in the state of Montana, the toughest job.
(Applause.)
If you're on the edge of poverty, if you're
working hard and you're making $22,000 a year, under this tax code,
incredibly enough, for every additional dollar that hard-working woman
makes, she pays a higher marginal rate on that dollar than someone who
is successful. Under the tax code today, for every
additional dollar the single mom making $22,000 a year earns above
$22,000, she pays a higher marginal rate on that dollar than someone
making $200,000 a year.
And that's not right. That's not
the vision we have for America. So I'm asking Congress to
drop the bottom rate from 15 percent to 10 percent and increase the
child credit from $500 to $1,000 per child. (Applause.) I
think everybody pretty much agrees with
that. (Applause.) Let me tell you
something. Let me tell you something else. I'm
advocating dropping the top rate, as well -- from 39.6 percent to 33
percent, and let me tell you why. Oh, I've heard all the
rhetoric, you've heard it, too. You know, this is the plan
only the wealthy people benefit.
I want to remind the people all across America
that there are thousands of small business owners who are
unincorporated in America who pay the 39.6 percent
rate. (Applause.) I want to remind people that
there are hundreds of thousands of sole proprietors in our country who
are working hard every single day to realize the American Dream of
starting their own business, of employing people, who pay at the high
rates in our tax code.
No, we've heard all the
rhetoric. But the truth of the matter is, the role of
government is not to create wealth, but an environment in which the
entrepreneur and small business owner can flourish in
America. And dropping that top rate sends a clear
signal: we want you to have more cash flow so you can expand
your business when this economy is slowing down; we want you to have
more money in your pocket so you can continue to employ more
hard-working people in the great land of
America. (Applause.)
The marriage penalty is unfair in our tax
code. (Applause.) It doesn't make sense to tax
marriage disproportionally to those folks who aren't
married. That's not right. We ought to encourage
families to stay together. We ought to have a tax code that
welcomes families. (Applause.)
I had the honor of meeting with some farmers
and ranchers from your good state. And it leads me to my
final point on tax fairness and tax relief. The death tax is
unfair. (Applause.) It's unfair to ranchers, it's
unfair to farmers, it's unfair to the family business owner that works
his or her heart out to be able -- and wants to leave it to a family
member. It's not right, folks. It's not right to
tax a person's assets twice. It's time to get rid of the
death tax in this tax code. (Applause.)
You've heard them all over
there. They say, this isn't enough. We've got
some people that are saying, let's make it bigger. And some
people saying, let's make it smaller. Our message we've got
to send the United States Congress is the plan I've laid out is just
right. It's just right for the small business
owner. It's just right for the person struggling to get
ahead in America. It's just right for the rancher and
farmer. It's just right.
And let me tell you another reason why we need
tax relief. I was in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and a grandmother
stood up and she said, you know, Mr. President -- behave yourself
(laughter) -- she didn't say behave yourself, she said, Mr.
President. She said, I baked a lot of cookies in my
day. She was talking about the budget and money in
Washington.
She said, I baked a lot of cookies in my
day. And I've seen children and grandchildren go through my
house more times than you can possibly imagine. And every
time I left cookies on the plate on the table, they were
eaten. That's how I feel about your money in
Washington. It's a fundamental difference about once we meet
priorities, who gets the money? Where does the money
go? (Applause.)
Today I've asked the Palmers -- there they go,
right over there where it says, tax relief now. That's Mike
Palmer, that's Kathy Palmer, that's Joe Palmer and Jacob
Palmer. And I want to thank you all for coming.
(Applause.) Mike works for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe
Railroad. Kathy is a teller at Wells Fargo Bank. Joseph is
12 and Jacob is 9.
This good family, they pay $2,900 in federal
income taxes. Once Congress puts the plan I've just
described to you in place, these good folks will save
$1,700. (Applause.) That's not a lot for some,
they say. It's a lot for them. It's $1,700 more dollars in
their pocket. You know, there's a lot of talk about national
debt. I want people to remember in Congress, there's also
debt at the private level. There's a lot of folks who have
got credit card debt. They thought they could manage the
debt okay, until the fact that our nation didn't have an energy policy
caught up with us.
People's energy bills are going
up. People are having trouble making ends meet in
America. We've met priorities. We've got money
left over. And the fundamental question is, do you want the Palmers to
spend the money or the government? I want the Palmers to
spend the $1,700. (Applause.)
This is a matter of trust. It's a
matter of trust. Who do you trust with that extra
money? Who do you want to spend it? That's the
question I'm asking the members of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, and the question I hope you join me in
asking. Once we've met priorities, once we've paid down
debt, I want to trust the Palmers and the hard-working
Americans. It's your money to begin with. It's
not the government's money we're talking about, it's the people's
money. (Applause.)
And it's so important to trust the people of
this country. It's so important to trust our fellow
Americans. The strength of the country is in the hearts and
souls of our citizens. That's the strength of
America. It doesn't lie in our halls of
government. And we have a great form of government.
But the true strength of America is in our
citizenry and our neighborhoods, where somebody puts their arm around a
neighbor in need, and says, brother or sister, what can I do to
help? No, the great strength of this country is because
good-hearted citizens say, I want to teach a child some values, and
become a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout leader, or a Boys and Girls Club
leader. The true strength of the country is in our churches
and synagogues and mosques, places of worship that teach us -- that
teach the scholar lesson. (Applause.)
I trust the people of this
country. That's what makes our nation unique and strong and
compassionate. The best thing I can do besides arguing for
good public policy and to sign good law is to begin by changing the
culture in Washington, by working to establish a culture of respect.
It's important for the rhetoric in Washington,
D.C. to be dialed down a couple of notches -- that needless
partisanship that goes on. We ought to be talking about the
people of the country. (Applause.) We need to be
talking about disagreeing in an agreeable way. There's a
time for politics. Thankfully, we finished
that. Now it's a time for good public policy. And
a good public policy always begins by trusting the people and listening
to the people and remember whose money we're spending when it comes to
setting the budgets of the federal government. (Applause.)
We have a solemn obligation in Washington to
do the people's business. So I believe we're beginning to develop a
culture of accomplishment in Washington, as well. I was
pleased to sign a bill that would have -- that got rid of needless
regulations, unnecessary, burdensome, cumbersome costly regulations on
what they call ergonomics.
We can come up with better policy, but it's
the system of accomplishment. Things are beginning to
happen. It requires a President who can set an agenda, work
with members of both parties and share credit when positive things
happen. And that's so important. I want people to
look at Washington and not see finger-pointing and name-calling and
bickering, but accomplishment.
And, finally, I believe we have an opportunity
in America to usher in a culture of responsibility, a signal that says
loud and clear to our country that each of us are responsible for the
decisions we make in life; that if we've got an issue in Billings,
Montana, don't hope that the federal government will wave some magic
wand and solve -- (applause.)
All of us in positions of authority must
uphold the offices that we occupy. All of us with
responsibility must understand that it all starts with those of us who
are fortunate enough to be able to say we're a mom or
dad. It all starts with loving our children with all our
heart and all our soul and all our mind. No, the greatness
of the country lays ahead of us, when we usher in a period of personal
responsibility; when we understand loving a neighbor like we like to be
loved ourselves is an important part of the American experience; where
we have a hopeful nation, a nation that holds up hope for everybody who
is fortunate to be called an American.
I see a great day ahead for this
country. But it all counts on the people. I'm
here to ask for your help. You're only an e-mail away from
influencing public policy, only a phone call. (Applause.)
It is such an honor to be
here. Mark was right, I was incredibly inspired not only
when I saw the beautiful countryside, but when I saw the hundreds of
citizens who took time out of their day to come by and wave. And I'm
honored that so many folks came here today. It makes me feel
great. I'm honored to be your President. It's a
huge, huge honor. I won't let you down.
God bless. God bless
America. Thank you all. (Applause.)
END 5:45 P.M. MST
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