For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 27, 2001
Briefing of the Travel Pool by Ari Fleischer
Aboard Air Force One En Route to Kalamazoo, Michigan
12:05 P.M. EST
MR. FLEISCHER: For the day, the
President will address the Southwest Michigan First Coalition and
Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce -- it's a joint event -- at 1:45
p.m. He will depart at 2:25 p.m. from the event, arrive back
into Washington, to the White House, at 4:45 p.m. He has no
other public events on his schedule. In
Michigan, he'll be joined by several members of
Congress. Both senators were invited. I'm not
certain whether the senators will be there or not. I do not
believe they will be able to be there. Congressman Nick
Smith, Congressman Fred Upton, Congressman Vern Ehlers, Congressman
Mike Rogers, Congressman Pete Hoekstra, Congressman Joe Knollenberg
will be with us.
Q Which ones of those are Democrats?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't have any
breakdown here. As I indicated, he's invited both
senators. Both senators are Democrats. That's our
action for the day. You know what the speech is about today,
so I won't go back into that.
Q How is he preparing for the speech on this
flight? MR. FLEISCHER: He's up in
the cabin going over his remarks, making last-minute
edits. He was working on it excessively yesterday, as well.
Q What does he hope to
achieve with this speech? MR.
FLEISCHER: Well, he wants to build support for his tax and
budget plans, limit spending, cut taxes, stimulate the
economy. And he's going to tie together several important
actions: free trade, education, spending restraint, tax cuts
and educational improvement, as a way to maintain long-term economic
growth and productivity.
Q There's been some speculation that he's
concerned that people are talking about him talking down the economy,
and he wants to make the point that -- MR.
FLEISCHER: Frankly, the White House looks at that as an
opportunity to show who's in touch with the concerns people have.
Michigan's unemployment rate is climbing at a rate higher than almost
every other state, if it's not the highest rate of
increase. People in Michigan are no strangers to the
problems unemployment creates. And they're worried about not
only their jobs, but their neighbors' jobs. If their
neighbor loses a job, they're worried they could be next, is what I
mean. So the President knows that this is an
issue in which he is in touch with the American people. And
I think those who criticize him risk being seen as out of touch with
people going through difficult economic moments.
Q Was the President
surprised that consumer confidence rose last month?
MR. FLEISCHER: There was a good
report out this morning, and that underscores what the President will
talk about today, that there are trends in the economy and weaknesses
in the economy, and he has a plan to diminish the weaknesses and
increase the strengths.
Q Is he going to take a position on the proposal
for a $60 billion stimulus for fiscal 2001?
MR. FLEISCHER: Keep in mind, the President is already
leading the charge. It's the President who called for
retroactivity, signalled that he would change his plan to support
retroactivity. The House passed a version of retroactivity;
now the Senate is looking at retroactivity. So he's very
pleased that Congress is working in a bipartisan fashion to follow
through on what he called for. And he'll talk about
retroactivity today. I'll let you -- the President's remarks
will speak for themselves on that.
Q Is there going to be a dollar figure?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not going to
preview it. The President's remarks will -- the President
will address it.
Q Ari, we do seem to have a spate of other
options floating around out there. Lieberman comes out with
his thing yesterday, a one-time rebate. You've got the
Domenici thing. There seem to be other things that affect
Baucus. and others are interested in and like and could go to, rather
than what the President is saying. MR.
FLEISCHER: The President views that as very
healthy. The President is pleased that we have people who
didn't used to talk about tax cuts talk about tax cuts. It's
another example of what White House leadership can do. But
the President will address today the need for a stimulus, not only
short-term, but permanent and ongoing, long-term.
There remains a risk that if the only action
you take is temporary, the politicians will find a way to spend all
that money, if you don't cut the taxes. So the President is
pleased to hear additional talk of retroactivity and
stimulus. It will be very hard to support anything that
doesn't -- and he will not support anything that does not permanently
cut taxes, because that's an excuse for the politicians to spend more
money. Q Can you look
back on Montana for a second? That was a very good event
yesterday. Does that, do you think, put pressure on Baucus
to get on board? What's the effect of it?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, as the
President said, a senior senator from Montana can make a big
difference, if he agrees with what the President is
saying. And if the people of Montana agree with the
President is saying, the funny thing about our system is, the word gets
through. Q But, I
mean, there are people who think that's counterproductive. Do you
think that the event actually had an effect on Baucus?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think any time you
have 10,000, 12,000 of your constituents calling on you to do
something, it's healthy and productive.
Anything else? Q Are
you considering postponing the implementation of eliminating the estate
tax, so as to be able to pay for some of the stimulus, as Mr. Lindsey
said in the USA Today this morning? MR.
FLEISCHER: Well, I think what happened was in the course of
an interview where Mr. Lindsey was also asked, are you suggesting a
delay, or, are you suggesting a slower phase-in, he said,
no. So Mr. Lindsey was very clear in the interview, saying
he's not advocating such a position. He was discussing, as
any good economist would, a whole variety of permutations.
Q -- is that something
that you are considering? MR.
FLEISCHER: The President believes the Congress should pass
his plan as presented. Okay, thanks
everybody.
END
12:12 P.M. EST
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