For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 1, 2001
Statement by the President on Tax Agreement
The Rose Garden
4:05 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good
afternoon. This is a great day for the American people and
the American taxpayer. Working together, Republicans and
Democrats in the House and the Senate have agreed on a proposal that
will provide $1.35 trillion in tax relief over the next 11
years. One hundred billion will be distributed right away,
this year and next, to help stimulate our economy and put money in
people's pockets quickly. The rest of tax relief will be
provided over the next decade.
I congratulate the members of the Senate and
the House, Republicans and Democrats, who have worked so hard to
achieve this bipartisan agreement. You all deserve great
credit for agreeing to provide the American people with meaningful,
significant, sweeping tax relief -- the most tax relief in a
generation.
Today, Republicans and Democrats have agreed
to help Americans send their children to college, pay off their
mortgages a little faster, or cope with rising energy
costs. In short, once we've funded our nation's priorities,
we've agreed to let the American people spend their own money on their
own priorities.
Today's agreement has a larger message as
well. By finding common ground on an issue that divided the
two parties throughout last year's campaign, Republicans and Democrats
have today proven we can work together to do what is right for the
American people. Achieving the agreement on significant tax
relief can help pave the way for consensus on other vital issues,
including reforming our public schools, strengthening Social Security
and Medicare, and transforming our national defense.
When I spoke to a joint session of Congress
just a few months ago to outline my budget and tax relief proposals, I
said that in the end, we'll be judged not only by what we say, but by
what we're able to accomplish.
We have more work to do to complete the full
budget. But today, we have accomplished significant tax
relief, and shown we can work together in a constructive way to get
things done for the people of this country.
Thank you.
Q Mr. President, are
you going to be able to keep spending in check in order to be able to
fund your tax cuts?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm absolutely
convinced we'll be able to fund the tax cuts.
Q Are you going to be
able to keep spending?
THE PRESIDENT: I've worked with
members of the House and the Senate to have a discretionary spending at
a reasonable level. I hope -- we're making
progress. There's a lot of discussions going
on. I suspect I'm going to have to remain diligent over the
next year to keep the spenders in check. That's a good job
for the Chief Executive Officer.
Q Mr. President, how
did your conversation with President Putin go?
THE PRESIDENT: Terry, it was
good. We had a very constructive conversation. I
called him early this morning to let him know that I would be giving
the speech that I just gave. I wanted to assure him that my
plans were in the best interests of our two countries, that we are
going to consult with the Russians as well as our other friends and
allies.
But I also made it clear to him that it's
important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that
if we blew each other up, the world would be safe. I told
him the Cold War is over and that Russia was not our enemy, and I would
help try to define the threats as realistically as I could, and that we
needed to have defenses to meet those threats.
I also told him that we would work to reduce
our own nuclear arsenals and would do so in time. He asked
me whether or not there is a chance we could meet before our upcoming
summits. I told him I would love to meet with him
beforehand, to look him in the eye and let him know how sincere I am
about achieving a new way of keeping the peace.
He reminded me at one point in time that he
talked about the need to address current threats in our world with
systems that might be able to intercept missiles on launch; boost
phase, as I talked about today. So I felt that it was a very
constructive meeting.
Q Mr. President, are
you concerned about Director Freeh's resignation? Did that
catch you by surprise?
THE PRESIDENT: Actually, Director
Freeh came to see me late yesterday afternoon. And he asked
if we could meet alone. I said, of course. And he
said, I'm resigning. And it did catch me by
surprise. And I'm disappointed. I would hope -- I
was hoping that he would stay on. I think he's done a very
good job. I'm sure he explained to you -- I didn't see his
press conference, but I suspect he explained to you the reason why, and
that is, he wanted to spend more time with his family. I
found Louis Freeh to be a fine public servant. And our
nation owes him a great debt of gratitude for his service to our
country. And now we'll begin the process of finding
replacements.
Q What response do you
expect from the European allies on missile defense? Do you
think they will get along -- go along eventually, and will participate
--
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think we've
got a lot of explaining to do. That's why yesterday I called the
leaders of France and Britain and Canada and Germany to explain to them
exactly what I -- and the head of the NATO -- to explain to them
exactly what I just explained, I told you, that -- Mr.
Putin. The phone call I made yesterday was nothing new,
however. I had met with those leaders before, and talked to
them about what I meant.
And during the course of the campaign, when I
talked about providing defenses to meet the true threats of -- that all
of us are now faced with, the leaders were pleased that we're sincere
about our desire to go through consultations. I've sent a
high-level team -- a team of high-level members of my administration,
deputies: Armitage, Hadley and Wolfowitz. It's a
clear signal about how, one, important this issue is and how, two, how
seriously we take the idea of consulting with our allies and
friends. They are very pleased with that.
But they are going to have to speak for
themselves. I am a little hesitant to put words in their
mouth.
Q Mr. President, on the
Social Security Commission, some are saying that if the membership is
going to be sort of stacked in a way that pre-ordains a recommendation
of privatization. What is your --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think -- I
think -- let us -- tomorrow is a day when we will be talking about
Social Security and that would be a very good question to the members
of the commission, to make sure that there is an objective analysis of
Social Security, how do we save it, what do we do to make sure it is
viable in the future.
There is a lot of speculation about the
commission that will be cleared up tomorrow afternoon, if I'm not
mistaken, right here in this very spot.
Thank you all very much.
END 4:11
P.M. EDT
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