For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 7, 2001
Remarks by the President and Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill in Photo Opportunity
Department of Treasury Washington, D.C.
1:53 P.M. EST
THE
PRESIDENT: Maybe everybody ought to try to move over.
MR.
JOHNDROE: You all heard the President -- scoot over.
(Laughter.)
Q Thank
you, Mr. President.
THE
PRESIDENT: I'm trying to get you in the picture.
I'm pleased
to be here with Secretary O'Neill and the OMB Director Mitch Daniels,
who are reviewing the cash flow numbers of our country. I
think the American people will be interested to know that in the first
quarter of the fiscal year we received $74 billion more than we
spent. In spite of the fact that the economy is slowing
down, our cash flow coming into the Treasury is significant, which
means our taxpayers are being over-charged. That's what that
means.
And if
somebody is over-charged, they ought to get a refund. And
I'm calling upon the Congress to give the taxpayers a refund.
Mr.
Secretary, thank you for letting me be here. I appreciate
you reviewing the numbers with me. You might want to review
them with the people here.
SECRETARY
O'NEILL: Mr. President, it's a wonderful pleasure to have
you in the Treasury Department. The numbers so far this year
compare to last year, when we had $42 billion worth of surplus at this
point in the annual cycle. Today we have $74 billion, as the
President said. So we've basically got $32 billion more cash
surplus this year than we did last year at this same time.
And I think
it clearly makes the case that we've got a structural tax system that
is producing these enormous surpluses now that the President has talked
about. And I'm very hopeful tomorrow the House of
Representatives is going to deal squarely with the first set of issues
of marginal rate returns -- marginal tax rates, and we'll be well on
our way to getting the Senate to accomplish the same purpose.
THE
PRESIDENT: I think the point of the meeting and the point
the American people need to know is that we've set priorities and
funded the priorities, and there's ample cash to not only fund
government, pay down debt, set aside money for contingencies, but
there's ample cash to let people have their own money so that they can
spend it and they can decide what to do with it.
It's a
fundamental debate taking place here in Washington, D.C., is whether or
not we increase the size of the federal government beyond the basic
priorities, or whether we trust people with their own money.
I'm hopeful
and confident that the House will do the right thing tomorrow, Mr.
Secretary. I look forward to taking our message to the
people. The people need to hear that we've got a common
sense approach to the budget. And the people need to hear
these kind of numbers, Mr. Secretary, that you're talking about --
that their hard work is producing more cash for government than
government needs.
We'll be
glad to answer a few questions.
Q Mr.
President, does this suggest that the economy is not slowing
down? Why is the surplus larger than at this time last
year?
THE
PRESIDENT: It suggests that -- first of all, the data shows
the economy is sputtering. Secondly, it suggests strongly
that the taxpayer is being over-charged. And one of the
things this administration is going to do is going to go to the
Congress and say, here are the priorities: our priorities
are public education, the military, Social Security and Medicare,
health care for the working uninsured. But by having common
sense budgeting we're going to also show the people that there is ample
money for them to be able to spend. And that's going to be
very important to make sure the sputtering economy recovers.
Q Mr.
President, how many Democrats are in your pocket?
THE
PRESIDENT: What?
Q How
many Democrats do you have with you right now?
THE
PRESIDENT: He's a
Republican. (Laughter.) As many as we can
get. This is a long process. And what I look for
is the final result. That's what we're focused on. We're
focused on this marginal rate cut package that's now in front of the
House of Representatives. We feel good about our chances of
passing this bill. It would be viewed as a major step toward
tax relief and tax reform.
We'll worry
about the next package when it comes out of the House, which may be the
elimination of the death tax or the marriage penalty. But
it's a long process. We've got to get it over to the Senate
and get to conference. And we'll be working members all the
way through the process.
Tomorrow
I'll be traveling to North Dakota and South Dakota and Louisiana; I'm
looking forward to taking this message to the people. The
people have got to hear what the Secretary just briefed me on -- is
that there's cash flow coming into our Treasury, enough cash flow to
meet priorities and to fund crucial parts of government, and at the
same time, have meaningful real tax relief.
Q Are
you comfortable, sir, the process is going on in the bipartisan spirit
that you called for? And as a second question, did you talk
to the Vice President today and how is he doing? I know he
was at the meeting earlier.
THE
PRESIDENT: He was doing jumping jacks
today. (Laughter.) No, he's doing great. He is
feeling healthy. I talked to him on the way back from --
right after I got on the ground from Chicago last night; he felt
great. He told me he'd see me first thing in the morning for
our national security briefing, and he was there. He looks
good, feels good. And that's good news.
Secondly, I
am comfortable that we're making good progress on tax
relief. Those of you who covered my campaign might remember
there was a period of time in which members of the media were saying,
well, are you ready to abandon your plan. And I said, no, I
don't think so; I think this is the right thing for
America. And all of a sudden, now it's exciting for this
administration to know that the Congress will be voting on a crucial
element, a meaningful tax relief.
As I
understand, there's going to be a -- people will have a chance to vote
for another version of it, as well, on the floor of the
House. And that's fine. That's good and
dandy. We're confident and feel good about the chances of
our view of how tax relief ought to take place. And we're confident
that will be positively received.
I know it's
going to be positively received by the American people when they hear
that we've got ample cash flow coming into our Treasury to meet
important priorities, and at the same time, with fiscal discipline,
with setting priorities and funding them, and not letting the size of
government grow like it has in the past, that we can make the case that
someone's mom is going to get their Medicare check, someone is going to
get their Social Security check, and at the same time people are going
to get their own money back so they can make the decisions on how to
spend -- what's best for their families, how to spend their own money.
And that's
the fundamental crux of this debate. The crux of this debate
is, do we want to explode the size of the federal government, do we
want to increase these baselines of the federal government, or do we
want to have fiscal responsibility, common sense approach to the
budgeting, and trust people with their own money. And
tomorrow is going to be an important step toward trusting people with
their own money.
THE
PRESS: Thank you.
THE
PRESIDENT: See you in Fargo.
END 2:05
P.M. EST
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