For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 1, 2001
Remarks by the President at Welcome Event
Fernbank Museum Atlanta, Georgia
2:10 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you
all. Thank you very
much. (Applause.) I'm
glad I came to Georgia. (Applause.)
Thanks so much for that warm welcome,
Vernon. It's great to be here in DeKalb
County. It is great to be introduced by one of the rising
stars in DeKalb County, one of the rising stars in the state of
Georgia. (Applause.) Vernon Jones is a good
man. He's a good man. And I'm proud -- I'm proud
to have been introduced by him.
I'm also proud to share the stage with both
Republican and Democrat elected officials here from Georgia, who are
sending an interesting message. (Applause.) An
interesting message, when the Georgia State Senate voted overwhelmingly
to urge all the federal elected officials from the state of Georgia to
support the tax relief package that I introduced yesterday --
(applause.)
I'm honored that Senators Starr, Dean and
Johnson would be here with me today. Both Republicans and
Democrats took a look at what I proposed and realized it's
fair. And I'm honored that members of the General Assembly,
Westmoreland and Buck, have joined as well, one Republican and one
Democrat.
See, this is not a -- the budget I submitted
wasn't a Republican budget, it wasn't a Democrat budget; it was the
people's budget. (Applause.) Maybe one reason why the good
folks of Georgia understand that
it's a reasonable is it's a common -- it's a budget based on good,
sound common sense. There are not a lot of things fancy
about it. Maybe it's because I was raised in West Texas and
I was taught some good common sense. (Applause.)
I'm so proud of members of the Georgia
delegation who are here from the federal delegation, Kingston, Deal and
Norwood, members of the United States Congress --
(applause). One member of your delegation wasn't able to be
here, but I would like to read a letter from him, if you don't mind:
Dear Mr. President, welcome back to
Georgia. I regret that I could not be with you
today. I had to be in Washington for a meeting with the
Department of Justice officials that was scheduled long ago, but I
wanted you and my fellow Georgians to know that I am with you in
spirit. I support your tax code proposal strongly, without
any reservations. This is
an overpayment of taxes and you are correct that those who paid it
know better how to spend it than the Congress. As the old
Elvis Presley song goes, we should return to sender. Zell
Miller. (Applause.)
I can't tell you how much I appreciate Senator
Zell Miller standing up
side by side with the President. Oh, I know he's a Democrat
and, of course, I'm a Republican. But both of us put
America first -- (applause) -- and this budget is an American budget,
because it sets priorities. It is a budget that sets
important priorities, starting with the education of our children.
The largest increase of any department in my
budget goes to the Department of Education. But, lest you
become too concerned, I want you to
hear loud and clear, the best schools are those that are run by the
local people. We strongly believe in local control of
schools. (Applause.)
We will spend more money but we will also
insist upon reform. And the
catalyst for reform, the agent for change is to insist that states and
local jurisdictions develop strong accountability systems so that we
know. We know when children are learning.
If you don't measure, how do you
know? If you don't measure, how can you correct problems
early before it's too late? The cornerstone of reform
is local control of schools and strong accountability systems at the
local level, so we can diagnose problems early, solve them early, so
that not one single child in America is ever left
behind. (Applause.)
Another priority in my budget is to pay the
men and women who wear the
uniform more money. (Applause.) It is to make
sure there is a high morale in the military by having better pay,
better housing. But also it's
important to have a Commander-in-Chief who will clarify the mission of
the military. (Applause.) And the mission in to
be well prepared, to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from
happening in the first place. (Applause.)
A priority in the budget -- a priority in the
budget is to take all the payroll taxes that are supposed to go to
Social Security and make sure they only go to Social
Security. (Applause.) Oh, I know you've heard the
talk -- I certainly have heard it -- about how any kind of tax relief
that has got any meaning to it will mean somebody is not going to get
their Social Security check. That's Washington talk for we
want more of your money to stay in Washington. That's what
that is.
Republicans and Democrats agree that we're
going to set aside all the payroll taxes from Social Security, and
that's what's going to happen. Another line you'll hear is that the
elderly will suffer. Well, my budget doubles Medicare
spending over 10 years. We're setting aside money to make
sure we fulfill the promise to the elderly.
And we've got to not only set aside money for
Medicare, we must reform
the system so that our seniors have got more choices, more options,
all of which will include prescription drug
benefits. (Applause.)
No, we set aside money for priorities, and we
fund them. The thing that's got some people concerned
though, is we're not exploding the budget,
like has happened in the past. The budget was skyrocketing
at the end of last year. It was much higher than the rate
of inflation and higher than disposable income.
Had we kept spending at that rate, we would
not only have spent all the surplus, we would have had to have dipped
into Social Security to meet the programs. What this
government needs is a fiscal, responsible approach
to the budgeting -- (applause) -- the kind of budgeting that you,
yourselves, do with your families. That's what the
government needs, and I'm willing to provide that kind of leadership.
So we meet priorities. We make sure
Social Security is safe and secure, and we also pay down
debt. There's a lot of discussion about debt at the national
level, and there should be. So part of the budget that I've
sent to the Congress sets aside $2 trillion to pay down debt over the
next 10 years.
People say, why don't you pay it all off, all
the national debt off? Well, that doesn't make any sense,
because not all the debt retires -- comes due at the end of 10
years. We shouldn't prepay debt at a premium that will cost
the taxpayers more money. Let's just retire the debt as it
comes due. That's $2 trillion worth of debt.
And it also makes sense to set aside money for
contingencies, which we
have done. We set aside a trillion dollars for
contingencies. People say, what kind of contingencies are
you talking about? Well, we may need some contingencies for
America's farmers. (Applause.)
Or, after we end up reviewing the military --
and remember in my speech, if you paid attention, or at least listened
-- (laughter) -- I said
we're going to have our defense vision drive the budgeting, and not
the other way around. (Applause.) And we've got to make
sure that we've got a plan. And we've got to figure out what
systems make sense, as we head into
the 21st century.
Instead of having military budget spending be
based upon politics, let's have it be based upon a strategic vision of
how best to keep the peace, not only today, but down the
road. We may need money for that. And
so we've got a trillion dollars set aside in contingencies.
As I tried to explain to the Congress, we
increase spending, not nearly as much as they did the last time, but we
increase it. We set aside
money for Social Security and Medicare. We pay down
debt. And we set aside contingency money. And
you know what? There's still money left
over. (Applause.) And the fundamental question
is, what do we do with it? What do we do with it?
Guess what's going to
happen. (Applause.) When you have more money than
you need, it seems like somebody is getting overtaxed and overcharged.
And what I am going to do is remind the Congress that if
we've overcharged somebody, it's time for a
refund. (Applause.)
It's time to remind people on a regular basis
in Washington the surplus is not the government's money; the surplus is
the people's money. (Applause.) And now is the
time. Before this money gets all spent, now is
the time to send some of it back.
But it's also the time to send it back because
our economy is beginning to sputter. And one of the things
we can do to make sure the economy gets a second wind is to let people
have money in their pockets so they can spend
it. (Applause.) One way to make sure that people
can find work who want to find work is to set priorities, set
contingencies, pay down debt, and give people some of their own money
back. Or how about not taking it in the first
place? (Applause.) So we reduce the rates on
everybody who pays taxes.
There are some in Washington who say, well,
some people need to be targeted in and some people need to be targeted
out of tax relief.
THE AUDIENCE: No.
THE PRESIDENT: The fairest tax
relief is to say if you pay taxes, you
get relief. That's the fairest way to do
something. (Applause.) We drop all
rates. We dropped the bottom rate from 15 percent to 10
percent. We dropped the top rate from 39.6 to 33
percent. (Applause.) And one of the reasons why
it is important to drop the top rate is to recognize the contributions
that small businesses play in America. Small business --
(applause) -- small businesses are really the backbone of the
capitalist system. The entrepreneur is a soul who dreams big
and works hard to realize a dream and therefore ends up employing
people. That's what the small business is all
about. (Applause.)
What I hope Congress recognizes is that many
small business folks are unincorporated and many of them are
sub-chapter S, which means they pay the
highest rate. And by dropping the rate, we increase the
ability of small businesses to grow and to employ more
Americans. (Applause.)
Our current tax code is unfair. It
is unfair for folks who live on the outskirts of poverty, who are
struggling to get ahead. It's unfair. It's unfair that if
you're a single mother, working hard, and you're in the
$22,000 range, for every additional dollar she earns, what's unfair is
that's taxed at a higher rate then someone who is very successful.
I used to try to paint the picture during the
campaign about the toll booth in the road to the middle
class. It meant people on one side of the toll booth paid a
lower marginal rate than those trying to get through. That's not what
America's about, as far as I'm concerned, and I know it's not about
what -- as far as you're concerned.
This is a country that says, the harder you
work, the more you struggle, the more likely it should be you're able
to realize your dreams. No, we need to drop the bottom
rate, and we need to make sure that that hard working waitress is more
likely to be able to save and dream and build. (Applause.)
We penalize marriage in the tax code, and
that's not right. And the death tax is
wrong. (Applause.) It taxes people
assets-wise. Now, this is a tax plan that is well thought
out. And it's fair. As I said in my speech, some
folks will say it's too big. Some folks will say it's too
small. We need to send the message to Republican and
Democrat legislators and senators that it is just
right. (Applause.)
And so I'm here to ask for your
help. I'm here to ask for your help. You don't
have to worry about Zell Miller. You don't have to worry
about
these three U.S. congressmen who are here. But there may be
some other folks from the state of Georgia who might be a little
nervous about the plan. I certainly hope
not. We're not going to take anything for granted,
though.
So if you find a member that you may have some
influence with, or know
an email address, or can figure out where to write a letter, and find
out somebody isn't listening to you, to do what's right for the
country, just drop them a line. I could use your
help. (Applause.)
And if somebody argues with you, just remind
them of these facts, that
the average family will receive $1,600 in tax relief. That
doesn't seem like a lot, to some of the folks who may be doing all
right, but it's a lot
to a lot of people. It's a lot to people whose energy bills
have gone up because we don't have an energy policy in
America. (Applause.) There's a lot of talk about
national debt. And that's important. But there's
a lot of credit card debt that are burdening people.
$1,600 can help a lot. $1,600 can
help set money aside for a child. $1,600 is real money, and I'm going
to remind those folks again whose money
it is: It's the people's money, your
money. (Applause.)
I haven't been your President for a long
period of time, but I can report that it is a fantastic
experience. (Applause.) I can't tell you what an
honor it is. I can't tell you what a high honor it is to
represent
the American people in Washington. That's why it's
important to come out and get my batteries charged, in places like
DeKalb County, Georgia. (Applause.)
To be able to look my fellow citizens in the
eye and say, I know you're counting on me, but I'm counting on you as
well. I'm counting on you, when you find a neighbor in need,
to reach out a hand, and say, what can I do, brother or sister, to help
you? I'm counting on you to run a Boy
Scout troop, and to teach our children right from
wrong. (Applause.)
Our nation counts on people who have got good
heart and good will to say, what can I do to make my neighborhood a
better place, instead of hoping that the federal government, in its
infinite wisdom, waves a magic wand and there's educational excellence
in every school in Georgia. We need the good citizens of
these communities to get involved with public education, to make sure
our teachers are supported, excellence is demanded,
accountability is in place so no children are left
behind. No, I'm counting on you. (Applause.)
The reason I'm so optimistic about America,
though, is that our land is full of loving people. The great
strength of the country doesn't lie in
the halls of our governments, it lies in the homes of our
people. The great strength of America is the fact that
America is full of caring and loving, God-fearing and decent souls, and
I am proud to be your President. Thank you all for
coming. God bless. And God bless America.
(Applause.)
END 2:28 P.M. EST
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