[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: GEORGE W. BUSH (2001, Book I)]
[March 12, 2001]
[Pages 228-232]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce in Panama City, 
Florida
March 12, 2001

    The President. Thank you all. Sit down, Governor. [Laughter] Well, I'm glad I came. Thank you for the 
invitation.
    Audience members. We're glad to have you. [Laughter]
    The President. It's one of these responsive meetings. 
[Laughter] Governor--what a good man he is. The key 
to our success is pretty simple: We listen to our mother. And she is still telling us what to do. I'm listening 
about half the time.
    I appreciate the two United States Congressmen who are here. 
Joe, thank you very much, and Allen, thank you very much, as well. I'm honored to have you 
both here. I've had some good visits with both of the Members. Sometimes 
we agree; sometimes we don't agree. But the thing about these two men is 
that we're going to agree to be respectful to each other. And that's 
what this country wants.
    I want to thank the members of the Rotary. I want to thank the 
members of the chamber. I want to thank the economic development folks 
who gave me an opportunity to come and talk about what's on my mind. 
Walking in, the man from the Rotary said, ``Our slogan is: Create 
awareness and take action.'' And that's exactly why I'm here. I want to 
create awareness about a commonsense budget and ask you to take action 
to help me get it passed.
    It's good to see the leaders of the Florida Legislature, members 
elected to the statewide--on the ticket here in Florida. I want to thank 
you all for coming. I know there's a lot of local officials here. I 
always believe the government closest to the people is that which 
governs best. So I appreciate you all being here.
    It was my honor to go to Tyndall today, to see the good folks who 
wear the uniform of the United States military, to tell them how much I 
appreciate their service to the country. I'm reminded today of how 
dangerous service can be. We lost some servicemen today in Kuwait on a 
training accident. I hope you'll join me in a moment of silence for 
those soldiers and their families.

[A moment of silence was observed.]

    The President. God bless.
    I'm here to talk about a budget. And there's a lot of talk in 
Washington about budgets, but here's what I believe. I believe the 
people who can best affect the budget are the people who pay the bills 
in the first place, the taxpayers of America.
    Sometimes it seems like we tend to talk to ourselves in Washington. 
And that's why I like to travel around the country, talking to the 
people who have got most at stake in the budget negotiations that go on 
in the Nation's Capital.

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    First, let me tell you that good budgeting means setting priorities. 
And part of my travels around the country is to explain where I think 
our priorities are.
    It is a priority to make sure we pay the men and women who wear our 
uniform good wages. It's a priority in my budget to do so. It's a 
priority to make sure they're housed well. But it's also a priority to 
make sure if we spend money, that we spend it wisely.
    That's why I've asked the Secretary of Defense to do a bottom-to-top review about missions and spending 
and research and development dollars, to come up with a strategic vision 
of our military, not only today but what the military ought to look like 
tomorrow, to make sure that money is wisely spent when we spend your 
money on the military. You see, I think we have a fantastic opportunity 
not only to keep the peace today but to redefine the terms of war, to 
use our new technologies to redefine how the battlefields are 
configured, so we have a better chance of keeping the peace.
    So we'll set priorities. The first priority is the people who wear 
the uniform. The second priority is to make sure long-term objectives 
are clearly set and, as we spend money, to make sure we meet those 
objectives. But there's one priority of the Commander in Chief that 
requires no money, and that's to make it clear the mission of the 
military--to make clear the mission of those who wear our uniform, and 
it is this: to be well trained, to be ready to fight and win war and, 
therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place.
    A second priority has been education. Now, we've increased the 
budget at the Federal level, but Governor, don't be 
too nervous. I remember where I come from. I believe in local control of 
schools. I strongly believe we ought to pass power.
    I know the secretary of education is here. It's good to see you, 
Charlie. The reason I mention Charlie is, I believe that the people who care more about the 
education of the children who live in the Panhandle of Florida than 
anybody else are the citizens of this part of the State. I know the 
Governor understands that. I know Charlie 
understands that. And the people in Washington have got to understand 
that. And that's why I look forward to working with Congress to pass 
power out of Washington, to provide as much flexibility with Federal 
money at the local level as needed, so that you all chart the path to 
excellence, so you figure out whether or not children are learning and, 
if not, make sure they do.
    The temptation in Washington is to say, one-size-fits-all will work. 
But we know better than that. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to 
the education of our children. There needs to be local control of 
schools. There needs to be strong accountability measures. And when we 
find failure, we've got to free parents to make different choices for 
their children.
    Social Security is a priority. I know there is a lot of talk, and 
there was during the campaign. I suspect there may be some, and for 
people who are trying to keep your money in Washington, they'll say, 
``Well, you can't have meaningful tax relief; otherwise, the Social 
Security system will fail.'' You read these polls. They're saying, you 
know, ``Do you want to take away somebody's Social Security check, or do 
you want to have tax relief?'' But that's not the choice. That's not the 
choice that we have here, as we work on this budget, because we set 
aside every dime of payroll taxes for one thing, and that is to spend it 
on Social Security. All this business about threatening people's Social 
Security checks is just not real, and it's not valid. The Congress and 
the White House agree that all the payroll taxes ought to be spent on 
only one thing, and that's the Social Security systems.
    There's a lot of talk about health care, and there should be. The 
budget I submitted to Congress doubles the Medicare budget, for example. 
The budget I submitted to Congress increases by 2 times

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the amount of people who will be taken care of in community health 
centers. Now, we focus on health, and there is money in the budget to do 
so.
    And so we've set priorities. Education is a priority. Keeping the 
peace is a priority. The health care of our citizens is a priority. 
Retirement accounts are a priority. And there is still money left over.
    But the difference between this administration and what happens in 
the past is that we grow discretionary spending by 4 percent. And I 
said, ``Well, that seems like a reasonable number.'' But that's not what 
happened last time around. Last time, as the Congress was trying to get 
out of town, they had a bidding contest, and the discretionary spending 
increased by 8 percent. That's a huge amount of money. The baselines of 
the budget were that much higher, and we're adding on top of that.
    And yet there are some saying, ``He doesn't want to meet basic 
needs.'' What we need in Washington is fiscal discipline; we need 
priorities. We need to set priorities and fund it, so our budget 
increases by 4 percent.
    And by the way, just so you understand the accounting talk there in 
the Nation's Capital, the definition of a budget cut is when numbers 
don't increase to expected levels. So like, for example, if the baseline 
is one and the expected level is one and a half and I propose 1.4, 
that's called a spending cut. It's the darnedest accounting system I've 
ever seen. [Laughter] That's why I'm trying to bring some common sense 
into the budgeting of your money.
    In the budget I submitted to the Congress, we pay down debt by $2 
trillion. Over the next 10 years, we will reduce the amount of debt at 
the Federal level by $2 trillion. But let me also remind you all, as we 
talk about numbers, remember there is a lot of debt around our society. 
There is debt at the Federal level, and we do a good job of paying down 
a lot. But there is also consumer debt, credit card debt, debt that 
burdens the working people.
    So as we talk about budgets, I just want you all to also keep in 
mind the budgets of the families who live in your neighborhood, budgets 
of people struggling to get ahead. You bet we're going to pay down debt 
at the national level. But we need to be mindful of the debt that 
burdens those who are struggling to get ahead and struggling to get into 
the middle class, as well.
    Then I set aside a trillion dollars for contingencies. That can mean 
money to help our farmers. And one of the things you'll find out about 
my administration is, I respect and understand the importance of 
American agriculture, not only for our domestic consumption but for 
international trade purposes as well. Farming is a very important part 
of our vision for the future.
    And after setting priorities and growing the budget at what I 
believe is a reasonable rate of 4 percent and setting aside the payroll 
taxes, paying down debt, and putting aside a trillion over 10 years for 
contingencies, there is still money left over. And that's the 
fundamental debate.
    There's a lady in--there's a lady in Iowa, western Iowa, a 
grandmother who stood up at an event I had, and she said, ``I've seen a 
lot of children and grandchildren go through my house. And every time I 
leave a plate of cookies on the table, they eat it.'' And that's how I 
view surpluses. That's what I'm afraid is going to happen if we don't 
have fiscal discipline and are willing to say that the surplus is the 
people's money. It's not the Government's money; it's the people's 
money. And that's the important thing for the Members of Congress and 
the Senate to keep in mind. It's not the Government's money; it's your 
money to begin with.
    And oh, there are some priorities that need to be kept, and we're 
keeping them. But there's another priority, as far as I'm concerned, and 
that is, how best to help American families to help themselves, how best 
to help people access the middle class. And there's another important 
priority, and

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that is, let people have money as quickly as possible, that otherwise 
would go to Government, to provide a second wind to an economy that's 
slowing down.
    One of the things that concerns me about tax relief is what they 
call targeted tax relief. That means Federal officials get to decide 
who's targeted in and who's targeted out. To me, that's not good public 
policy. I don't think we ought to try to pick winners and losers in 
Washington, DC. I think everybody's a winner in America, and I think if 
you pay taxes, you ought to get tax relief. And so I submitted a plan 
that reduces all rates, on everybody who pays taxes. We simplified the 
code.
    This Tax Code of ours is unfair. It is unfair to people who are 
struggling to get ahead. Incredibly enough, if somebody has--a single 
mom, for example, raising two children, if she earns more money above 
$22,000, she pays a higher marginal rate on every additional dollar she 
earns than somebody who is successful. And she loses her earned-income 
tax credit, goes into the 15 percent bracket for the first time, and 
pays payroll taxes. She's paying nearly 50 percent on every dollar. This 
is somebody struggling to get ahead, somebody who's working the toughest 
job in America, by the way, and that's raising children on her own. And 
yet, the Tax Code we have makes it unfair.
    And so we've reduced the bottom rate from 15 percent to 10 percent 
and increased the child credit from $500 to $1,000, to make it easier 
for that person to realize her dreams. The message is: The harder you 
work, the more money you have in your pocket in America; the harder you 
work, the easier it is to get ahead, and not the other way around.
    But we also drop the top rate from 39.6 to 33 percent. And I know 
that's created a lot of howling in Washington, but I think you can help 
remind people over whom you've got some influence that the whole notion 
of dropping the top rate is to stimulate growth in the small-business 
sector of America. There are hundreds of small-business owners who are 
unincorporated, who are sole proprietors, who may be organized along 
Subchapter S lines, that pay that high marginal rate. And by dropping 
the rate, we're sending a clear message to America: The role of 
Government is not to create wealth; the role of Government is to create 
an environment in which a small-business owner can flourish, in which 
the entrepreneur can realize their dream.
    The small-business owner is a job creator. The small-business owner 
also represents the best of America, which says, ``If you dream big and 
work hard, you can own your own business.'' And by the way, when it 
comes time to pass that business on to your heir, we need to get rid of 
the death tax to make sure you can do so.
    The House moved out our cut on marginal rates. I look forward to 
working with them on the rest of the package, including doing something 
about the marriage penalty and the--we send the wrong signal. Our Tax 
Code ought to encourage marriage. We ought to encourage families. We 
ought not to penalize people who said ``I do'' at the altar.
    So there is a lot of work to be done, and I am here to ask for your 
help. Instead of sending people your check, why don't you send them your 
check and send them an e-mail while you're at it. Why don't you let your 
Senators know that you think tax relief is not only good for the 
economy, but you think tax relief is good for working families here in 
the State of Florida.
    And let me talk about two such people, Darrell Calhoun and Andrea Calhoun. 
They're here with their children. Raise your hand, Darrell. Darrell is a 
small-business owner. He owns a fence company. Today, in America, he 
pays $1,200 in Federal income taxes. When this plan is fully enacted, he 
will pay zero in Federal income taxes. He and Andrea are raising 
Garrett and Madison.

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    Oh, I know some will say, ``Well, $1,200 isn't all that much.'' It's 
a lot to them. It's a lot to people who are paying high energy bills 
today in America. It's a lot to people who struggle with their own 
personal debt. I think it makes sense to set priorities. I think it 
makes sense to pay down debt at the national level. I think it makes 
sense to make sure the retirement systems work.
    But I think instead of spending on bigger Government, I think we 
ought to trust people with their own money. I'd rather have these good 
people spend the $1,200 than the people in Washington, DC. And that's 
the fundamental debate that's taking place, and I'm glad we're 
discussing it. It's really what democracy is about. It would be better 
if they did everything the President said. [Laughter] Sometimes it 
doesn't work that way. But they darn sure better listen to the people. 
And the people can have a large say as to whether or not we want 
fiscally responsible Government in Washington, DC, or whether we're 
going to continue those spending orgies that spend your money on bigger 
and bigger and bigger baselines of budgets.
    It's time to have fiscal sanity in our Nation's Capital, and it's 
time to remember who pays the bills. It's the working people of America 
who pay the bills. It's so important, for those of us who hold the high 
honor of representing you, to trust the people. After all, that's the 
strength of America, the people. But the great strength of the country 
is not our governments. The great strength of the country are the 
people, the people who will help to make this country the--fulfill its 
promise for everyone who's lucky to live here.
    I say that because the common acts of decency and courtesy that take 
place neighborhood to neighborhood are really part of the strength of 
America. The fact that there are moms and dads who become Boy Scouts, 
Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Club leaders, that take a child around the 
shoulders and say, ``Somebody loves you,'' and, ``Somebody cares,'' 
that's the strength of America. The fact that there are little centers 
of love that exist because somebody says, ``What can I do to help? What 
can I do to live that common call to love a neighbor like I'd like to be 
loved myself,'' now, that's the strength of America. The great strength 
of our country lie in the hearts and souls of the American citizens.
    My job is to lift the spirit of the country. I'll argue on your 
behalf, and I'm going to argue until I get a bill to sign. It's out of 
the House. Come on out of the Senate, and I'll sign it. And I'll argue 
on your behalf. We'll have our agreements, and we'll have our 
disagreements, but my pledge is to have those agreements and 
disagreements in a respectful way.
    But there's more to the job than just arguing on your behalf when it 
comes to fiscal sanity in Washington. The job really is to lift the 
spirit of the country; to call upon the best; to remind the moms and 
dads, your most important job is to love your children with all your 
heart and all your soul; to call upon the compassion of America. And by 
doing so, we, as a nation, can unite, and we, as a nation, can hold out 
that great beacon of hope. We want it to be for every person who lives 
in our country.
    What an honor it is to represent you all, and what an honor it is to 
be the President of the greatest country on the face of the Earth. Write 
your Senators; let your Congressmen know.
    And God bless. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 1:38 p.m. at the Marina Civic Center. In 
his remarks, he referred to Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida; Representatives 
Joe Scarborough and Allen Boyd; and Charlie Crist, commissioner, Florida 
Department of Education.