For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 7, 2001
Remarks by the President at Tax Family Reunion
The South Lawn
9:37 A.M. EST
THE
PRESIDENT: Well, Debora, thank you very much. I'm
so honored to see you. And thank you for bringing your son
and daughter here. The Vice President and I have been looking forward
to this family reunion -- tax family reunion. The nice thing
about this reunion is you don't have any annoying relatives to deal
with. (Laughter.) But we're glad to welcome you
to the White House.
One of the
best parts of the campaign was to meet the hardworking Americans who
really make up the backbone of our country. I'd go to the
different cities around our great nation and get off the airplane, and
there would be a tax family. And it was our way to put a
face on a piece of important public policy. It was our way
to say, behind all the numbers we were talking about and to talk about
budget, there were real, live Americans who will benefit.
And I want
to thank you all for coming back. I look forward for you to
-- look forward to thanking you in person. I look forward to
you to see the people's house, the place that Laura and I are now
fortunate to call home.
I have one
message for all the folks that were our tax families and all the folks
from around the country. You help me make my case, and now I
intend to make good on my promise. I want it to be said that
ours is a plan that fulfills a campaign promise. And that's
important. A lot of people look toward the political process
and say, oh, these candidates just say something and really don't mean
it. Well, when I campaigned for meaningful tax relief, I
meant it. And tomorrow I'll submit a plan based upon exactly
what I said on the campaign trail. I look forward to working
with Congress to get the plan passed.
During the
course of the campaign I said it's as if our nation had erected a toll
booth right in the middle of the road of the middle class, making it
hard for people to access the middle class; making it hard for
hardworking Americans to realize more money for their
own. And so we're going to start dismantling that toll
booth, brick by brick. It begins by simplifying the
code. We'll reduce the rates from five to four.
It
recognizes that our tax code is unfair. It is unfair to
people who struggle to get ahead. It is unfair for the
single mom, who lives on the outskirts of poverty, who's working hard
to provide for her family. For every additional dollar she
makes above $25,000, she pays a higher marginal rate on that dollar
than someone who's wealthy. And that's not right and it's
not fair. It's not what America is all about, as far as I'm
concerned. Our tax code makes the code more fair.
It is also
fair that everybody who pays taxes should receive
relief. And that's why we drop all rates. We drop
the top rate and we drop the bottom rate, and we expand the child
credit, from $500 to $1,000. Under our plan, a family of four making
$50,000 a year will receive a 50-percent cut in the taxes they pay to
the federal government. The average tax load will decrease
by $2,000 -- from $4,000 to $2,000.
As Debora
said, she calculated our plan and she saves $1,000. Maybe for some the
number $1,000 doesn't mean much, and maybe for some $2,000 doesn't mean
much. But for thousands of Americans it means a lot.
I want to
assure my friends, the tax families who are here, that we will submit a
budget as expected to the United States Congress. A budget
that sets aside all the payroll taxes for Social Security. A
budget that sets clear priorities. A budget that pays down
the national debt. And a budget that has got room for a meaningful,
substantial tax reduction.
And there's
a lot of talk about debt in this town, and it should be talked about,
national debt. And our plan pays down debt. But I
also want the members of Congress to understand that there are a lot of
folks struggling to get ahead who have got high consumer
debt. There's a lot of people who are burdened by credit
card debt in America. And when you couple that debt overhang
with high energy prices, more and more of the backbone of this country
struggle to save and struggle to get ahead.
So this tax
relief package not only is a way to make sure our economy remains
strong, it's a package that understands people need to have more of
their own money. It says that with strict budgeting and
prioritizing our budget, that when we have surpluses we must remember
who pay the bills in America. And it's these folks who pay
the bills in this country. And they deserve relief.
And so I
call upon Congress, when they think about tax relief, to think about
the members of our tax family who represent all the people of our
country, who work hard to get into the middle class and to stay in the
middle class.
It's an
honor to be your President. I'm so thrilled you all are here
to say hello to us. I can't wait to greet you
inside. Thanks for coming, and God bless you
all. (Applause.)
Q Mr.
President, Republican leaders are pushing for an even larger tax
cut. Sir, do you think that's advisable?
THE
PRESIDENT: The tax cut is the right size. I
believe it's the right size. And I think it's going to be
very important for us and the members of Congress to work
together. But I'm going to make my case that the size of the
tax relief package I propose is right.
Q So
you're saying it would be inadvisable, in your judgment, based on
looking at the numbers of the surpluses, et cetera?
THE
PRESIDENT: I think for those who want to diminish the size
of the tax cut, that would be inadvisable, and for those who want to
increase the size of the tax cut would be inadvisable. It's
the right size.
Q Could
you tell us how it is, sir, that your Chief of Staff didn't know what
your plans were for the Office of National AIDS Policy and the
President's Initiative for One America?
THE
PRESIDENT: We're going to have a -- we're concerned about
AIDS inside our White House, make no mistake about it. And
ours is an administration that will fight for fair, just law in the
country.
Last
question.
Q Mr.
President, how concerned are you about the outbreak of violence
following the election of Ariel Sharon? And, also, can you
tell us how you might take a different approach than President Clinton
and his administration when it comes to Middle East peacemaking?
THE
PRESIDENT: We're going to play the hand we've been dealt.
And we're going to play it well, with one thing in mind -- that we
promote peace in the Middle East. And I've talked to leaders
in the Middle East, urging calm; and so has the Secretary of State.
And I just
got off the phone with Prime Minister Barak and told him he fought the
valiant fight, and he assured me he would support the government's
attempts to bring calm in the region. And we will continue
to reach out to the parties in that region to promote an environment of
stability and calm, to give the Sharon government a chance to do what
he said he was going to do, which was to try to form a unity government
and reach out to the parties to promote peace in the region.
See you.
END 9:46 A.M. EST
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