For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 8, 2001
Remarks by the President at Electronic Industries Alliance Government Industry Dinner
The Grand Hyatt Hotel Washington, D.C.
Listen to the President's Remarks
6:20 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you
all. Thank you very much. Dave, thank you very
much. I thought for a minute he was going to bring up the
OU-Texas score, but -- (laughter) -- he's a diplomat at
heart. I appreciate your leadership, and I appreciate your
friendship, and I want to thank you for inviting me here to the
Electronic Industry Alliance Dinner.
I want to thank the Chairman, Cliff Smith, for
his hospitality as well. I see the Ambassador from our great
friend, the nation of Israel here. Ambassador Ivry, good to
see you, sir. Thank you very much for being
here. (Applause.) I wasn't exactly sure why you
were going to be here until I realized that this banquet is going to
honor Felix Zandman for his contribution. Mr. Zandman,
congratulations, sir. (Applause.)
It must be a pretty big deal to get the
Ambassador to come to a black tie dinner like this. I know
members of the Congress are here; Congressman Barr, Hutchinson, Issa,
Sheila Jackson Lee from my old hometown of Houston, Texas; and
Congressman Nick Smith. It's good to see the members of
Congress who are here as well.
I'm honored to speak here, and I want to thank
you for giving me a chance. First, it gives me a chance to
tell you that Laura and I are doing great. I love my
job. (Applause.) It's hard to describe the honor
I feel every morning, walking into the Oval Office. I'm
confident that my last day in office will be just like my first, that
Oval Office just inspires, I think, an awesome sense of
responsibility. And I accept it.
On my way out, Laura, the First Lady, said,
where are you going? I said, well, I'm going to go speak to
banquet of high-tech entrepreneurs and people who are making the
economy grow. She said, whatever you do, don't try to be
charming, witty or debonair. (Laughter.) Just be
yourself. (Laughter.) She sends her
best. (Laughter.)
It is my honor to be with innovators and
visionaries, the folks that really epitomize what America is all
about. Ours is a land of people who dream big and are
willing to work hard to achieve the dreams. Which means that
government has got a unique role. And the role of government
is not to create wealth; the role of our government is to create an
environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish, in which minds can
expand, in which technologies can reach new frontiers.
And so, tonight, I want to talk about three
areas where government can help. And the first comes with
understanding the role of taxation in our society. I
remember campaigning throughout our great land and talking about the
need to cut taxes. And there were a lot of blank stares for
quite a while. I suspect some thought that I was just saying
that we ought to have tax relief becuase it might have sounded good.
But I campaigned for tax relief because I
thought it was right for America. And I'm pleased to report
that we're making good progress. I want to thank both
Republicans and Democrats for sending out a budget that understands the
projected surplus is not the government's money, the surplus is the
people's money, and we need to share some of that surplus with the
people who pay the bills. (Applause.)
It's been an interesting
debate. But, fortunately, the debate understands the role of
the entrepreneur in our society. The budget should be passed
here this week, and then the respective committees will begin deciding
how to cut the taxes. My strong suggestion is
that we focus first on cutting all marginal rates; that the idea of
Congress trying to pick and choose winners and losers in the tax code
is not fair and it's not right. We need to reduce every rate
on every taxpayer in America, including the top rate. (Applause.)
I'm confident we'll be able to work together
to make the code more fair. Our tax code is unfair for
people who live on the outskirts of poverty. The example I
like to use is this one: If you're a single mother in
America -- by the way, she works the toughest job in America, raising
children by herself -- and if you're making $22,000 a year, for every
additional dollar this hard-working woman makes, she pays a higher
marginal rate on that dollar than someone who is successful in
America. And, folks, that's not right.
The American experience says to us that the
harder you work, the more easy your life ought to be. And
therefore, to reduce the high marginal rates on people trying to get
ahead, we need to drop the bottom rate from 15 percent to 10 percent
and increase the child credit from $500 to $1,000 per
child. The code will be more fair. It's as if we
will eliminate a toll booth that sits right in the road -- in the
middle of the road to the middle class.
But I want Congress to also understand that
it's not only important to drop the bottom rate, it's important to drop
the top rate as well. By dropping the top rate, we encourage
growth, capital formation and the entrepreneurial spirit.
It's important for Congress to understand that
many small businesses in our society are sole proprietorships or
Subchapter S's. They don't pay the corporate tax
rate. They pay high personal rates. And when you
drop the top rate, you're sending a strong signal that says we want the
small business to flourish. We want the small business to
become the big business.
No, tax rates need to be cut. We
can afford tax cuts, and the way our economy is behaving today, we
can't afford not to have tax cuts. And it's time for the
Congress to act. (Applause.)
We need to ban Internet access
taxes. We need to understand how powerful the Internet can
be to commerce and growth. We need to have a permanent R&D;
tax credit in our system. You see, it's important to create
certainty. It's important for planners and corporate
executives to understand the rules, and that the rules won't
change. It's important for Congress to understand that tax
relief provides consumer confidence. Long-term, steady tax policy is
necessary to encourage deployment of capital throughout our society.
I believe we're going to have good tax relief,
but I'd like for you to continue to work with us. You're
only an e-mail away or a call away. It's
important. Now is the time to act.
It's also important for this nation to develop
an energy policy. For too long, we have had no energy
policy. And like you, I'm deeply concerned about consumer
prices. They're going up. I'm concerned about
rolling blackouts in California. I'm concerned what that
could mean to entrepreneurial growth and to the high-tech industry.
It is so important for our nation to work on
conservation. And I believe there are new technologies
coming aboard that will encourage conservation, that will make it
easier for all of us, consumer and business alike, to conserve precious
energy. But we can't conserve our way to energy
independence, folks. We need a policy that encourages
exploration and expansion of the infrastructure, necessary not only to
find natural gas that's fueling many of the new plants being brought
on-line, but the pipelines necessary to carry that natural gas to
places where they'll be used.
We need more electricity wires carrying
product across the country. It is time for an administration to step
up and develop an energy policy that's good for the long-term economic
growth of this country. And that's exactly what this
administration is going to do. (Applause.)
There is concern about our environment in our
society, and there should be. Mine is an administration that
wants to foster good, common-sense conservation policy. But
I believe strongly, with the technological advances we have made in our
country, that we can not only find new product, but we can do so in a
way that is sensitive to the environmental concerns of many in
America.
And finally, an area that will help create an
environment that fosters growth and wealth, and expands opportunity to
anybody who's fortunate enough to be an American is
trade. It is important for our nation to understand the
benefits of open markets around the world. It's important
for those who not only create jobs, but those who work, to realize that
a confident nation that opens up markets is one that will create not
only opportunities at home, but opportunities abroad.
I've seen the benefits of open
trade. As the governor of the state of Texas, of course, I
was deeply concerned about our policies to our neighbor to the south,
Mexico. I always felt like Mexico was our friend, and we
wanted our friend to be strong and vibrant and
successful. We wanted our neighborhood to have opportunity
for all.
There are some in our country who want to
build walls between the United States and other nations such as
Mexico. But those who build walls aren't confident about
America and our potential and our ability to compete. Those
who build walls don't realize what a wall would do in our own
neighborhood. It's time to tear down walls not only in our
hemisphere, but around the world. (Applause.)
It's time to promote open
markets. I strongly believe open markets will lead to better
lives for people. I've been questioned about my policy
toward China. China is a great emerging nation. I
strongly support trade with China. I not only do so because
I know I know it's good for our entrepreneurs, our high-tech folks, our
farmers and ranchers, but for those of us -- and I know we all share
the same thing in America -- who adhere to the ideals of freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, freedom to -- freedom of press.
Open markets eventually will cause folks to
demand more freedoms when they get a taste of the marketplace inside
countries that restrict freedom. When they get that sense of freedom
to demand and freedom to produce, they will eventually demand from
their governments the other freedoms that we take for
granted. Open trade is good for the promotion of freedom
around the world.
And so I ask Congress to give the President
something other Presidents have had in the past, and that's trade
promotion authority, so an administration can negotiate with confidence
free trade agreements, not only in a hemisphere, but trade agreements
with countries like Jordan and Singapore.
There's a new protectionist sentiment in
America that we need to resist. And sometimes it's couched
in words like the environment or labor agreements. But I
want to remind the skeptics that as we spread wealth around the world,
it is more likely that a worker will have better conditions where he or
she works. And it is impossible for poor nations to achieve
environmental successes. By encouraging wealth in developing
nations, it will help those nations improve their own environmental
policy. We should resist protectionism, and we should fight those who
want to wall off America from the benefits of free trade.
And so I ask for your help. As we
get trade promotion authority moving through the Congress, I hope you
remind members of the Congress and the Senate the good benefits that
open trade can mean not only the entrepreneur, but to the working
people in our country and with those with whom we
trade. (Applause.)
And along those lines, during the campaign, I
promised to lead an effort to reform our export control system, so that
it safeguards genuine military technology while letting American
companies sell items that are already widely available. And
we're making good progress. I want to thank Dave for his
help. I've been working with my friend,
Senator Phil Gramm from Texas, to reform the Export Administrative Act,
to strengthen both national security and our high-tech
industry. In March, I'm pleased to report, the Senate
Banking Committee passed a revised EAA, which my administration
strongly supports. It's now time to pass it for the House,
so I can sign it into law. (Applause.)
I've got a bigger job than just passing laws,
and it's one to really change the tone in Washington. I
think that's an important mission for my administration -- to say to
the good folks in this town that, whether you're Republican or
Democrat, we need to treat each other with respect. It is so important
that all of us work together to develop a culture of respect, so that
when people look at our Nation's Capital, they like what they
see. And I think we're making some
progress. There's still the occasional shrill voice that is
trying to tear somebody down. There are those who still
believe in zero-sum politics, if so-and-so gets his bill, so-and-so
loses. That's not how I view my job, nor how I view good
public policy.
I try to separate politics from
policy. We've had plenty of politics; it's now time for good
public policy. (Applause.) It's time to
understand that we'll be judged based upon what we do, not how we talk
-- thank goodness. (Laughter.)
I believe when it's all said and done, we will
have developed a culture of accomplishment here in Washington, as
well. I think people are beginning to realize that this
President will share credit, that this President isn't trying to figure
out how to one-up somebody, that my focus is on the people, the people
of this great land.
Which leads me to my final hope, and that is
we need to develop a culture of responsibility in America, a
responsibility that spreads all throughout this great land, where
people understand that if you're a mom or a dad, if you're fortunate
enough to be a parent, that your main responsibility is to love your
children with all your heart and all your soul. That's your
most important job.
It's important, in a period of personal
responsibility, to understand that you must love a neighbor like you
would like to be loved yourself. One of the most important initiatives
we're working with the Congress on is a faith-based, community-based
initiative that recognizes the limitations of government and also
recognizes that there are fantastic programs all across America where
somebody has said, what can I do to help, what can I do to help change
somebody's life.
One of the most important initiatives we're
working with Congress on is to provide grant monies to encourage
mentoring to children whose parents may be in prison, so that some soul
who lives in the greatest land on the face of the earth will understand
there's hope and a future, will understand when somebody puts his arm
around them and says, I love you, I care for you.
Government can't make people love one
another. But government can encourage those who do
love. And government can also set an example. Government
can uphold the high responsibilities of the offices to which we have
been elected. It's an important task for America, that when
they look at their government, they're proud of what they
see. I think we're making progress. I certainly
hope so. It is a charge I intend to keep.
Thank you for having
me. (Applause.)
END 6:37 P.M. EDT
|