[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: GEORGE W. BUSH (2001, Book I)]
[March 7, 2001]
[Pages 205-207]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Treasury Secretary Paul H. 
O'Neill and an Exchange With Reporters
March 7, 2001

    The President. Maybe everybody ought to try to move over.
    Assistant Press Secretary Gordon 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 
cashflow 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 cashflow coming into the Treasury is 
significant, which means our taxpayers are being overcharged. That's 
what that means. And if somebody is overcharged, 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 Paul H. 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

[[Page 206]]

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, DC, 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 commonsense 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.

National Economy

    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 overcharged. 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 
commonsense 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.

Tax Relief Legislation

    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 cashflow coming into our Treasury, enough cashflow to meet 
priorities and to fund crucial parts of Government, and at the same 
time, have meaningful, real tax relief.

Vice President Cheney/Tax Relief Legislation

    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.

[[Page 207]]

    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 cashflow 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, commonsense 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.
    Q. Thank you.
    The President. See you in Fargo.

Note: The exchange began at 1:53 p.m. in Secretary O'Neill's office at 
the Department of the Treasury. A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of these remarks.