[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: GEORGE W. BUSH (2001, Book I)]
[March 9, 2001]
[Pages 214-219]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
March 9, 2001

    Thank you all very much. I am glad to be here in South Dakota. I was 
telling the good Governor, the air may be 
a little chilly, but the people are awfully warm.
    I want to thank your warm hospitality. I particularly want to thank 
those who were on the road waving to us as we came in and those who have 
lined up outside the hangar. It's really--it really makes me feel great 
to be here. Thank you for your hospitality.
    I'm so proud to be able to call your Governor my friend. He's a good man, Janklow. He's kind of hard to 
settle down, sometimes. [Laughter] But the thing I like about him is he 
married well--[laughter]--he's honest, and he loves the people--and he 
loves the people.
    Earlier today, we toured a community health center here in Sioux 
Falls. And I was honored and so pleased that the minority leader in the 
Senate, Tom Daschle, greeted me. It's very 
thoughtful of him to do so. I appreciate--I appreciate the dialogs we 
have had. He treats me with respect; I will treat him with respect.
    I'm also appreciative of the fact that we've got two United States 
Congressmen on the stage with me today: a very capable, strong, able man 
from South Dakota, John Thune; and I've 
noticed you've relaxed your border policy and allowed Congressman Mark 
Kennedy from Minnesota to come today, too. I 
appreciate these two men being here. It gives me a chance to personally 
thank them for casting an important vote on behalf of the American 
people yesterday, when they cast a vote to cut the taxes on the people 
who pay the bills. I want to thank you all.
    I appreciate the mayor; I appreciate the 
former Senator; I appreciate my fellow 
citizens. I appreciate the fact that you've given me a chance to get 
outside of Washington--[laughter]--remember where I came from, to come 
to the heartland of America. It's important for all of us in the Federal 
Government to continue to come to the heartland, because it's the land 
of good heart and the land of commonsense people.

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    And I am here to talk about a commonsense way to budget in 
Washington, a commonsense approach for what to do with your money. I 
want you to understand, first and foremost, all the talk about the 
surplus. The surplus is not the Government's money. The surplus is the 
people's money; it's the hard-working people of America's money.
    And I'm going to remind the good folks in the Nation's Capital, some 
of whom don't need reminding, some of whom may need to be occasionally 
reminded, that we work for you. And it's your money we're talking about 
when it comes to setting budgets. It's important to be fiscally sound 
and fiscally responsible with your money, which starts with setting 
priorities, clear priorities. And so I want to share some of the 
priorities that I've set.
    First, educating our children is a important priority for our 
Nation. So we spend money on public education--but I always remember 
where I came from. I hope you don't get too nervous, Governor, because I have always believed and will always 
believe in local control of schools. And so, while the Government will 
spend money, we've got to trust you to run your schools.
    We got a good vote out of the Senate Education Committee that passes 
power out of Washington, so the local folks can chart the path to 
excellence for every child. Education is a priority, but it must be a 
priority in the context of empowering local folks and strong 
accountability measures and trusting parents and always challenging 
failure. Because in our vision, there are no second-rate children in 
this great land of ours, and there are no second-rate dreams in America.
    Health care is an issue, and it's a priority. I believe we ought to 
double the amount of patients we cover in community health centers, to 
make sure that the poor and those on the outskirts of poverty are able 
to find primary care.
    I know we've got to make sure we take care of our elderly, and so 
we've doubled the Medicare budget in my budget. It says loud and clear 
to our seniors, the promises that we have made to you will be a promise 
we will keep. But it also requires new thinking and new leadership. We 
must reform Medicare to give seniors more options, more choices, more 
opportunities to tailor their health care programs to meet their needs, 
all of which ought to include prescription drug benefits for our 
seniors.
    A priority is to work with States on important development projects. 
And the Lewis and Clark Rural Water Project is a project that will be in 
my budget and something that we can work together on.
    Our retirement systems are a priority in the budget. And so we've 
sent the clear message to the Congress--and it's being well received, by 
the way, by both Republicans and Democrats--that the payroll taxes, all 
your hard-earned taxes aiming for Social Security, will be only spent on 
one thing, and that's Social Security--that we set aside that money.
    One of the biggest jobs I have is to serve as the Commander in 
Chief, and I do so proudly. I want to be the Commander in Chief of 
troops that have got high standing and high morale, people that have got 
a clear mission stated to them by the Commander in Chief, which is to 
make sure our military is properly trained, ready to fight and win war 
and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place. So a 
priority is to make sure our military is better paid, better housed, and 
better trained.
    Those are priorities of ours. We grow what's called the 
discretionary part of the budget by 4 percent. That's greater than the 
rate of inflation. That's a lot of money, by the way, when you're 
talking in terms of billions. We grow the budget.
    But if you listen to the voices of those who would rather keep your 
money in Washington, DC, they say we can't meet the needs. I'm telling 
you, we can meet the needs with the right kind of priorities.

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We can meet the needs with the right kind of focus.
    So we grow that budget, but the problem is, some of the folks in 
Washington are used to spending orgies. At the end of the last session, 
the discretionary spending grew at 8 percent. I mean, it's like, ``Let's 
have a contest to see who can spend the most in order to get out of 
town.'' Those days are over. We're going to bring some fiscal sanity to 
the budget.
    We can meet our priorities, and we can fund them. And we can also 
pay down debt. I know a lot of folks around America are worried about 
national debt, as am I. We pay down $2 trillion of debt over the next 10 
years. That's all the debt that's available to be retired without having 
to pay a premium for prepaying debt. That's a lot of debt retirement. It 
will be the biggest repayment of debt in the history of the world. And 
so we pay down debt.
    In order to make sure that the American people are comfortable with 
our plan, we also set aside a trillion dollars over 10 years for 
contingencies, emergencies, money for the unforeseen. So people say, 
``What do you mean by that?'' Well, I'm concerned about the agricultural 
sector here in our country, the agricultural economy.
    I want to increase demand for South Dakota products. I believe that 
the South Dakota farmer and rancher is the best in the world. And if 
given the opportunity, they can compete with anybody in the world, so 
long as the opportunity is fair. So my administration will work hard to 
increase demand for South Dakota products. When it comes time to 
negotiating trade agreements, we're not going to leave the farmer 
behind. We understand the significance. But we may need some contingency 
money to help the farmers transition from the old ways to the market-
oriented approaches for agriculture.
    And speaking about agriculture, let me reiterate my commitment to 
value-added processing, to making sure that ethanol is an integral part 
of the gasoline mixes in the United States.
    It makes common sense to set aside money for priorities and 
contingencies and debt. But there is still money left over. The people 
are working so hard and long hours and are overtaxed--that there's money 
left over. And the fundamental debate that's taking place in Washington, 
DC, is what to do with the money. That's the fundamental debate. And I'm 
here to make my case: If the American people are overcharged, they 
deserve a refund. They deserve some money back.
    It's really a matter of who you trust. It's a matter of trust. Once 
the priorities are met, once debt is repaid, once the money is set aside 
in case something goes wrong, it's who do you trust? And I want to make 
it clear to the people of South Dakota: I trust you, rather than the 
Government, to spend your money. I trust you.
    I also don't trust the Congress to pick winners and losers in the 
Tax Code. You're going to hear the words ``targeted tax cuts.'' That 
means a group of folks get to decide who is targeted in and who is 
targeted out. That's not my view of Government. My attitude is, if you 
pay income taxes, you ought to get relief. Everybody who pays taxes 
ought to get relief.
    And so, yesterday the Congress did the right thing. They heard the 
call that if we're going to have tax relief, reduce all rates. And we 
have done so. We've made the code--we're trying to make the code more 
simple.
    We've dropped the bottom rate from 15 percent to 10 percent and 
increased the child credit from $500 to $1,000 per child. And there is a 
reason, and the Congress must hear the reason. It's because we want the 
code to be more fair--that if you're living on the outskirts of poverty 
and you're struggling to get ahead, today's Tax Code penalizes hard-
working people.
    I want you all to remind folks who need to be reminded, that if 
you're making about $22,000 a year and you're a single mom

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raising two kids, which I know and many of you know is the toughest job 
in America--that's the hardest work in this country. For every 
additional dollar under this code--under this code that some label 
progressive--for every additional dollar that hard-working lady earns, 
she pays nearly 50 percent tax. The way the code is structured, she 
loses part of her earned-income tax credit. She pays the 15 percent 
bracket. She's paying her payroll taxes. She pays more on the margin 
than Wall Street bankers do. And that's not right, and that's not fair. 
And we're going to do something about it in the Tax Code.
    We're also dropping the top rate from 39.6 percent to 33 percent. 
There's a lot of hollering about that. A lot of people--you know, they 
like the targeted tax cut, ``We're going to try to pick and choose the 
winners.'' But I want you all to remember this, that an integral part of 
America is the small-business owner. The small-business owner not only 
provides many of the new jobs we create, but the entrepreneur and the 
small-business owner represents the best of America. It talks about the 
American Dream and the American experience of starting and owning your 
own business. There are a lot of folks who have come to this country, 
whether or not America is meant for them, and they start their business, 
and they work hard, and they own a piece of the future. That's what 
America is about. And I want you to remind the skeptics and the 
naysayers and the doubters that many small businesses are 
unincorporated, many are what they call Subchapter S, and they pay the 
highest marginal rate in the Tax Code. And by dropping the top rate from 
39.6 to 33 percent, we provide capital infusion into the small-business 
sector of America. This is a plan that is good for the entrepreneur and 
small-business people. It makes sense to be that way.
    And by the way, there is a need to make this happen quickly. We got 
a issue with our economy. It's beginning to sputter. It's beginning to 
get a little shaky. And one way to make sure that we provide a second 
wind to the economy is to give people their own money back. That's 
called economic recovery.
    And so I appreciate so very much the Congress working with the White 
House to make the tax relief retroactive. In other words, when we pass 
the bill, it will be as if it went into effect on January first of this 
year, to get money in your pockets quicker.
    I also want to thank those 10 Democrats who voted with us yesterday. 
People are beginning to hear from the people. People are beginning to 
hear. The elected Members are beginning to hear from the people. That's 
why I'm here. I want to remind you that you all have an incredibly 
positive effect. You can help a lot, and I appreciate so very much----

[At this point, a small fire broke out in one of the spotlights hanging 
above the crowd.]

    The President. As I said, you can have a positive effect. [Laughter] 
It's a sign from above. I'll keep an eye on it. [Laughter]
    Let me say one thing, quickly. I am concerned about our economy. And 
therefore, today, in order to make sure our transportation hubs continue 
to flourish and we continue to fly, I'm issuing an Executive order to 
protect the flying public in a time when Northwest Airlines and the 
mechanics are having trouble resolving differences, and they need time 
to do so. This order that I signed today will prevent any disruption of 
air service for the next 60 days.
    It is significant to the people living in South Dakota that I do 
this. Northwest is the first airline this year to reach a critical point 
in labor/management negotiations. Several other negotiations involving 
other national carriers face deadlines within the next few weeks, and I 
am concerned about their impact, concerned about what it could mean to 
this economy. And I intend to

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take the necessary steps to prevent airline strikes from happening this 
year.
    I urge the National Mediation Board to make sure that the parties 
work toward a solution and negotiate in good faith. It's important for 
our economy, but more important, it's important for the hard-working 
people of America to make sure air service is not disrupted.
    I'm watching. And I'm winding down, but I want to do one other 
thing. I want to remind you that tax relief is good for families. It's 
good for our families. And it is going to be better for families when we 
do something about the marriage penalty in the Tax Code. The Tax Code is 
unfair to farmers and small-business people. We need to get rid of the 
death tax in the Tax Code.
    There's a lot of talk about taxes. I want to put a face on taxes. I 
want people to understand that tax relief is real for people. We've got 
the Hagen family here. You all stand up, Scott--
and their family, Tiffany and Christian and Austin and 
Kyler. This is a hard-working family. They're 
raising their three children. They now pay $1,500 in Federal income 
taxes. When it's all said and done, after the Congress passes its plan 
and when it's all said and done, they'll end up paying zero in Federal 
income taxes.
    Now, I know they're going to say, and you'll hear them say in some 
of the parlors around the country, ``You know, 1,500, that's not much.'' 
Just ask the Hagens. Just ask the working families who have energy bills 
that are high. Ask the people--I want the skeptics to ask the question 
to people, what it's like to have huge consumer debt. There's a lot of 
talk about debt at the national level. We need to worry about debt in 
the communities all around America. No, that $1,500--$1,500 may not mean 
a lot to some. It means a lot to the Hagens, and there's a principle 
involved. And the principle is, we trust them to spend the 1,500 the way 
they see fit. It's their money to begin with.
    And so I'm here to thank you for your support, thank you for your 
friendship, and ask for your help. You're just an e-mail away from 
making a difference in somebody's attitude.
    It's the right thing to do. This is commonsense approach to your 
money. It's the commonsense approach. It requires some discipline. It 
requires reordering priorities. And the priority with your money is not 
to grow the Federal Government; the priority of your money is so you can 
grow your own families and meet your own needs and meet your own 
responsibilities.
    And that, after all, is what's important about America, 
responsibility. We have a responsibility--those of us elected to office 
have a high responsibility--responsibilities that I will keep. But it 
doesn't just start in Washington, DC. It starts in neighborhoods. At the 
community health center today, I had the honor of meeting people who 
assume the responsibility of not only providing health care but of 
saying to a neighbor in need, ``What can I do to help?'' They call it 
the heartland because people have got good hearts in this part of the 
world. People care about neighbors.
    We can argue about budgets, but that's not the greatness of America. 
The greatness of America is our people, the fact that we've got people 
who care about somebody. And so I urge you, become a Boy Scout or Girl 
Scout leader to teach a youngster right from wrong. I urge you--I urge 
you, don't hope that Washington fixes schools; don't hope that the 
Federal Government waves some magic wand to make the schools better. Get 
involved with your education systems here at the local level. Thank a 
teacher, thank a principal for their hard work. If your church, your 
synagogue, or mosque, you're looking for something to do, find a program 
that will help mentor a child. Put your arm around somebody. It says, 
``We love you.'' America is meant for--you know, the greatness of this 
country lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens.

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    My job will be to argue smart budgets. My job will be to represent 
you when it comes to making sure you've got your money back. My job will 
be to keep the peace. But my job will also be to call upon the best of 
America, to lift this Nation's spirits, to set our sights high, to call 
upon the goodness and kindness of America, to remind the moms and dads 
of our country, if you're fortunate to be a mom or dad, love your child 
every day, love them with all your heart and all your soul.
    And that's why it's such an honor to be here, an honor to be your 
President. I'm so optimistic, with the right focus, the right attitude, 
the right approach, that this great Nation can achieve anything we set 
our minds to.
    Thanks for coming out today. God bless. God bless America. Thank you 
all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:03 a.m. in the National Guard Hangar at 
Joe Foss Field. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. William J. Janklow 
of South Dakota; Mayor Gary Hanson of Sioux Falls; and former Senator 
Larry Pressler. The Executive order of March 9 establishing an emergency 
board to investigate the Northwest Airlines labor dispute is listed in 
Appendix D at the end of this volume.