For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 25, 2001
President Discusses Budget in Radio Address
Radio Address of the President to the Nation
Listen to Address with Real
Audio Player
10:06 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good
morning. Congress will shortly return to Washington to make
its final spending decisions for 2002. A new budget report,
released this past week, shows that despite the economic slowdown that
began in the third quarter of last year, the federal budget is strong,
healthy and in balance. In fact, the 2002 budget surplus
will be the second biggest surplus in American history.
The report also shows we are funding our
nation's priorities, meeting our commitments to Social Security and
Medicare, reducing taxes and still retiring record amounts of
debt. This is a great achievement, and it happened because
Congress worked with me this spring to agree to a responsible total
level of spending.
Congress also worked with me to cut income
taxes for the first time in a generation -- the right policy at exactly
the right time to boost our sagging economy. The faster our
economy grows, the stronger the federal budget will be.
The greatest threat to our budget outlook
is the danger that Congress will be tempted this fall to break its
earlier commitments by spending too much. The old way in
Washington is to believe that the more you spend, the more you care.
What mattered was the size of the line in the budget, not the effect of
that line on real people's lives. My administration takes a
new approach. We want to spend your hard-earned money as
carefully as you do. And when we spend the people's money,
we insist on results.
Today, my Office of Management and Budget
is releasing a report identifying 14 long-neglected management problems
in the federal government, and offering specific solutions to fix
them. For example, the United States government is the
world's single largest purchaser of computers and other technologies
for gathering and using information. In 2002, we will spend
$45 billion on information technology. That's more than
we've budgeted for highways and roads. Yet so far, and unlike private
sector companies, this large investment has not cut the government's
cost or improved people's lives in any way we can measure.
Another example: the General
Accounting Office has, year after year, found that the federal student
aid programs are run in ways that make them vulnerable to fraud and
waste. And year after year, virtually nothing has been done
to make sure that federal aid intended for needy students goes only to
the needy.
With the help of congressional leaders
like Senator Fred Thompson, we are going to take on these problems, and
others like them, with a focused, targeted reform
agenda. We'll introduce greater competition into government
and make government more attentive to citizens.
Americans demand top-quality service from
the private sector. They should get the same top-quality
service from their government. I've asked Cabinet
secretaries and agency heads to name a chief operating officer, who
will be held accountable for the performance of that
agency. These officers will make up the President's
Management Council, to build a leadership team that listens, learns and
innovates.
Taxpayers work hard to earn the money they
send the government. Government should work equally hard to
ensure that the money is spent wisely. I will work with
Congress to build a government that is responsive to the people's
needs, and responsible with our people's money.
Thank you very much for listening.
END
|