President Discusses Economy and Terrorism After Cabinet Meeting
Remarks by the President After Meeting with the Cabinet
The Cabinet Room
2:05 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. We've just had a very
constructive Cabinet meeting. We talked about the need for us to
remain strong in the war on terror. I assured our -- my team that
America is not going to blink in the face of the attacks that took
place in Spain. As a matter of fact, we'll continue to rally the world
to fight off terror.
Here at home, my economic advisors, economic team presented a very
upbeat assessment about our economy. It's strong, and it's growing
stronger. Inflation is low. Interest rates are low. Manufacturing
activity is up. The job base is growing. There's a lot of signs that
the economic plan we put in place are working. There's more work to
do.
In order to make sure the economy continues to grow, in order to
fight off economic isolationism, we've got to work to control the cost
of health care, which makes it awfully difficult for many small
businesses to provide health care for their employees. We need an
energy plan. The Secretary of Energy discussed the need for an energy
plan. We need to make sure that we have legal reform. Junk and
frivolous lawsuits make it awfully difficult for people to find work
here in the United States. We need to make sure that the regulations
at the federal, state and local level are absolutely necessary. And
finally, we need to make sure the tax cuts are permanent. Tax relief
has stimulated economic growth, and they need to be permanent. And I
call upon Congress, once again, to, at the very least, make sure the
child credit, the marriage penalty, and the 10 percent bracket are made
permanent now so that people can plan -- consumers can plan and small
business owners can plan.
But I'm pleased with the report I received. And I'm pleased with
the progress. There is more work to do. I look forward to working
with Congress to get it done.
I'll answer two questions here today. Tom, wherever you are.
Q Mr. President, over here.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, right there.
Q Mr. President there's been a lot of attention over the last
couple days to a book written by your former counterterrorism advisor
that suggests that you understated the threat of al Qaeda before
September 11th, and then rushed to blame Iraq after the terror
attacks. Is there any basis at all in any of these allegations? And
do you agree with the Republican Senator Chuck Hagel that the White
House needs to take these charges more seriously and not just undermine
Mr. Clarke's credibility?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the facts are these: George Tenet briefed me
on a regular basis about the terrorist threats to the United States of
America. And had my administration had any information that terrorists
were going to attack New York City on September the 11th, we would have
acted. We have been chasing down al Qaeda ever since the attacks.
We've captured or killed two-thirds of their known leaders. And we're
still pursuing them, and we will continue to pursue them so long as I
am the President of the United States.
I want to thank the troops involved. We've got a couple of
thousand troops involved in Afghanistan that are hunting down al Qaeda
in that part of the world. We've got intelligence officers all over
the world collecting information so that we can act. We've got a
strong network of cooperative governments trying to chase down
terrorist money and to prevent that money from being spread around to
cause harm.
I was on the phone today to Gerhard Schroeder, reminding them that
we need to stay strong in the fight on terror. And I appreciated his
strong comments today by phone, that he fully understood the stakes.
We're making progress. There is more work to do. And this country
will stay on the hunt. The best way to protect our country from
further attack is to find the terrorists before they come to our
homeland, or anywhere else, to inflict harm.
Steve.
Q Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Are you worried about the threat
from Hamas to attack U.S. targets over Israel's killing of Sheik
Yassin? And were you troubled by his killing?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I'm worried about terrorist groups targeting
America. And we take every threat seriously in this administration.
Nearly every morning that I come to work, I talk to George Tenet, FBI
Director Mueller and others about the threats to the United States.
And there's still serious threats because of what we stand for. There
are still people who want to harm our country. And so -- whether it be
an Hamas threat, or an al Qaeda threat, we take them very seriously in
this administration.
As far as the Middle East, it's a troubled region, and the attacks
were troubling. There needs to be a focused, concerted effort by all
parties to fight terror. Any country has a right to defend itself from
terror. Israel has the right to defend herself from terror. And as
she does so, I hope she keeps consequences in mind as to how to make
sure we stay on the path to peace. This administration is committed to
finding a two-state solution -- a two-state solution for the good of
Israel, a two-state solution for the good of the Palestinian people.
To this end, if the circumstances on the ground allow, I'll be sending
a team back out to the Middle East next week to see if we can't keep
the process alive, the process toward peace.