[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: GEORGE W. BUSH (2001, Book I)]
[February 2, 2001]
[Pages 47-50]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



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Remarks at the Republican Congressional Retreat in Williamsburg, 
Virginia
February 2, 2001

    Thank you all very much. I like to give short speeches, and I'm 
always on time. [Laughter] But evidently, I didn't get the dress code. 
[Laughter]
    I really appreciate you, Speaker. 
Thanks for your friendship; thanks for your leadership. These are two 
really good men. And I want to thank you, J.C., and Rick as well, for your--
pretty darn eloquent guy for being from Oklahoma. [Laughter] He can tell 
it. I appreciate you. Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to 
welcoming the University of Oklahoma football team to the White House.
    I appreciate the chairman of the Republican Party being here. I chose a fellow Governor--or I asked a 
fellow Governor to serve, and he's a good one. He's a strong leader. 
He's done a fabulous job for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I 
appreciate you being here, Jim. Thank you very much.
    I'm glad you get to see the Secretary of the Treasury, who's smart and capable. He's surrounded by Senator 
Grassley and Congressman Thomas; good work. [Laughter] It didn't take you long to 
transition from the private sector. And Condi is here, Condi Rice; a capable Chief of Staff, 
Andy Card; Nick Calio, who's going to really head up our congressional affairs. 
The reason I bring these people up is that they're here to serve 
America. They're here to work with you to make our jobs easier. And I've 
assembled one of the finest staffs any President has ever done in the 
White House.
    I'm making my rounds to the various caucuses. Senator 
Daschle invited me over this morning to 
the Library of Congress, and I was so honored he would, and it gave me a 
chance to come. Many Members of the Senate there had never seen me in 
person and had never had a chance to visit. And we had a very good 
discussion, and I was grateful for his introduction. I'm going on to 
Pennsylvania Sunday afternoon, as well, thanks to the kind invitation of 
Congressman Gephardt.
    And I want to go around and say a couple of things as clearly as I 
can. First, here, I want to thank all the Members who are here who I got 
to campaign with. We had a lot of fun. It was tiring at times, but I 
really, really appreciated the Senators and House Members for joining me 
and Laura on the campaign trail. It really made it a lot easier to 
understand your districts, as well as to put up with all the long hours 
on the campaign trail. So thanks from the bottom of my heart for your 
sacrifices.
    It also gives me a chance to say how deadly earnest I am about using 
my position as your President to change the tone in the Nation's 
Capital, to say to America that we'll have our disagreements, we'll 
fight over principle, and we'll argue over detail, but we'll do so in a 
way that respects one another. I think it's so important for us as 
leaders, as people who have been given positions of responsibility, to 
understand that the way the process is conducted can set a good or bad 
tone for America. I'm committed to setting a positive tone for the 
country, and I know you'll join me.
    You're not going to agree with everything I say. I probably won't 
agree with everything you say. But I'll listen, and I'll respect your 
opinion. I'll try to understand why the position you've taken. I'll try 
and understand why you don't do everything I tell you to do. [Laughter] 
But I'll do so in a way that tries to figure out where the other person 
comes from. I think that's an important part of the Washington 
experience.
    I'm absolutely convinced that we can change Washington for the 
better. I believe we can have the dialog so necessary that will inspire 
some youngster who's looking

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at Washington to say, ``I think I want to serve my country. I think I 
want to maybe go to the United States Senate or the United States 
House.'' We have that responsibility to our citizens. And I pledge to 
you that these first 14 days in office, or near 14 days in office--the 
tone set in the first 14 days will be a consistent tone for however long 
I happen to be fortunate enough to be your President. This is a message 
I want to say to all elected officials.
    I love meeting with the Members. For those of you who have been to 
our office, thanks for coming. For those of you that have not been to 
our office yet, you're coming. Just don't take any silverware. 
[Laughter] When you come, I look forward to hearing from you. I look 
forward to having a frank discussion. I look forward to hearing what's 
on your mind. I don't want you to--I'm sure you won't be, but don't be 
looking around at the furnishings and say, ``Gosh, oh, the meeting 
ended, and I didn't say anything.'' We expect to hear from you, and 
that's the best way to get things done, is to have a good, honest 
discussion.
    I also want to remind members of both parties that I am able to 
stand before you as the President because of an agenda that I ran on. I 
believe the fact that I took specific stands on important issues is the 
reason I was able to win. The fact that I took on the Social Security 
issue in as clear language as I could be, with innovative thinking, I 
believe, was part of the reasons why people came our way.
    I'm going to take that same positions I took on Social Security and 
other issues, and try to get them on the floor of the House and the 
Senate and get something done. It's a positive agenda. It's one that I 
believe, when we apply our principles to it, will make a huge difference 
for America. The agenda is going to require a lot of patience and a lot 
of time and a lot of work. But I want you to know, this is not a lot of 
items. I believe I've got a limited amount of capital, and I'm going to 
spend it wisely and spend it in a focused way.
    One item is Social Security; another is Medicare reform. We have a 
fantastic opportunity to seize the initiative to make sure that, working 
with people like Chairman Thomas, to make 
sure that the Medicare system works. Prescription drugs need to be an 
integral part of a Medicare delivery system. It will be a proud moment 
for all of us, Republicans and Democrats, to say we came together to 
modernize Medicare so that the seniors can retire in dignity.
    I see the respective chairmen of the committees dealing with our 
military. I commit to you that our mission is going to be to make sure 
our military is strong and capable. But it first requires the 
administration to act. One, is to clarify the mission, to make it clear 
to those who wear our uniform that the mission is to be prepared and 
ready to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in 
the first place.
    But we have an obligation to the Members of Congress to present a 
strategic vision about what the military ought to look like. We've got 
an unbelievable opportunity, as we go into the 21st century, to 
refashion how war is fought and won and, therefore, how the peace is 
kept. It's a remarkable moment. But it's incumbent upon those of us in 
the executive branch, Secretary Rumsfeld 
and our policy team, to present to you a blueprint about what the 
military ought to look like and where the priorities ought to be. You 
may like it; you may not like it. But before we--good appropriations 
will really only occur if there is a strategic vision. And we're the 
appropriate people to present the strategic vision. So Secretary 
Rumsfeld is working on that.
    We've had a lot of talk--early talk about education. I want to thank 
you all for your respective chairmen coming over and talking about 
education. This is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. This is

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of national concern, to make sure our public schools function. And we 
can apply some principles that I think we all agree with, which is high 
standards, expecting the best for every child, local control of schools, 
trusting local people to run the schools, and strong accountability 
systems but, as well, insist that there be results.
    Guess what happens in systems when you don't measure? Inner-city 
schools just get shuffled through the school systems. Or in my case, in 
my State, sometimes children whose parents didn't speak English as a 
first language just got moved through. Because you know why? We didn't 
know. And they come out at the end, and somebody says, ``Oh, you can't 
read like you're supposed to.'' That's because we didn't have the 
courage to insist upon measurement; we didn't have the courage to insist 
upon results. In order to make sure every child is educated--I mean 
every child--and no child is left behind, we've got to adopt a system 
that has high standards, local control of schools, and the willingness 
to hold people accountable for results, and an accountability system for 
which there is a consequence if there is success and there is a 
consequence if there is failure.
    Many Members, Republican and Democrat alike, have said, ``Are you 
going to give us a budget?'' I said, ``Of course--just hope you don't 
kill it the minute it arrives.'' It is our responsibility to do so and, 
working with the Speaker and the leader, to make sure it's there on a 
timely basis. But we'll have a budget. It's a budget that will set aside 
Social Security for one thing--payroll taxes for Social Security and 
only Social Security. It's a budget that pays down national debt. It's a 
budget that sets spending priorities. But it's also a budget that 
recognizes we must provide tax relief to the people who pay the bills. I 
feel strongly about this issue. And of course I hope you join me.
    It is so important for us to understand some facts. One, the economy 
is slowing down. And it's important for us to combine good monetary 
policy with good fiscal policy. And good fiscal policy is a sound 
budget, coupled with giving people some of their own money back, to 
serve as a second wind to an economy. I come from the school of thought 
that by cutting marginal rates for everybody who pays taxes is a good 
way to help ease the pain of what may be an economic slowdown. I'm going 
to make that case over and over and over again until we get a bill 
through.
    It's important for us not to let the tax relief debate fall into a 
class warfare debate. It seems like, to me, the fair way to do things is 
if people pay taxes, they ought to get tax relief. But I want to assure 
you that inherent in our plan is an understanding of how unfair the tax 
system is. It's unfair to people at the bottom end of the economic 
ladder.
    If you're a single--I did one of these radio addresses for tomorrow, 
and I talked about the single mom who is working hard to get ahead. 
She's making $22,000 a year. Many of you heard--you probably heard me 
use this example in the campaign. But I want to share it with you again, 
because it's an inherent part of our plan. For every dollar she earns, 
because of the earned-income tax phase-out and because she gets into the 
15 percent bracket and because she pays payroll taxes, she pays a higher 
rate on the extra dollar earned than someone who is making $200,000 a 
year. That's today's Tax Code.
    And so part of our plan is not only to serve as an insurance policy 
against a severe economic downturn or a second wind for economic 
recovery, however you want to put it, but part of our vision addresses 
unfairness in the code by recognizing there are people struggling to get 
in the middle class. This country must understand that by making the 
code more simple, by dropping the bottom rate from 15 to 10 percent and 
increasing the child credit, we make that middle class, that dream of 
ownership so much more accessible, and that's what

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we ought to be representing in the great land called America.
    There is a lot of talk about debt, and we need to retire debt at the 
Federal level. Just remember, lockboxing Social Security, a payroll tax 
is a pretty darn good step to relieving debt. But there will be a glide 
path for debt repayment in our budget.
    But during this debate, I want you all to remember that there is a 
huge consumer debt burdening many people working for a living in 
America, that there are 61 million Americans, I've been told, that have 
$10,000 or more of consumer debt. Now, think about that. These are 
people working hard to get ahead. They've got a pretty high debt load. 
And all of a sudden, energy prices start moving up on them. And the 
combination of the two worries me, and I hope it worries Members of 
Congress, regardless of their party.
    So tax relief is important to help working people manage their own 
accounts, manage their own personal business. And they say, ``Well, 
that's not much money.'' Well, if you're a family of four making $50,000 
a year, under my plan, your taxes go from $4,000 to $2,000. That's 
$2,000 extra dollars. That's a lot for somebody struggling. That's a lot 
for somebody who is on the margin, and we must hear those voices on the 
margin. So tax relief is not only good economic policy; it's good people 
policy.
    We can talk about marginal rates. We also need to talk about the 
death tax and the marriage penalty, two important ingredients about 
making sure the code is more fair and more responsive to the needs of 
working Americans. And that's my agenda.
    I'm going to be asked to comment on a lot of issues. I'm confident 
about that. And I'm sure I'll have an opinion. But when it comes to 
spending capital and staying focused, that's where this administration 
is going to be.
    And I look forward to working with you. I look forward to working 
with you to get things done for the people. I can't think of a better 
cause then the people of America. J.C. hit 
it right, this is a fabulous land, because the people are so great.
    I think one of the most important initiatives that thus far we've 
discussed, in the short time I've been here, is the Faith-Based 
Initiative. I want to make it clear to you, we understand the 
Constitution. But I also want to make it clear that faith-based programs 
in many neighborhoods are really the solution to making sure we have a 
welcoming society.
    My hope of hopes is that when it's all done, somebody will say, 
``Well, you know, President George W. Bush came''--``Number 43,'' by the 
way, as opposed to ``Number 41''--[laughter]--but ``he came, along with 
his dad, and understood the office, helped change the tone, helped 
effect a cultural change that was a welcoming change, and welcomed 
people into America that didn't pit one group of people against another 
but that helped people understand the greatness of America should apply 
to everybody, that the public policies that we passed together enforced 
that dream and vision, that this is the greatest country on the face of 
the Earth because of its people, because of our great people.''
    We have an obligation to the people of America to set a good tone, a 
good example, an example of the spirit of what's possible. I'm confident 
it can happen. And it's such a huge honor--huge honor--to play an 
important part.
    God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 12:55 p.m. in the James River Grand 
Ballroom at the Kingsmill Resort. In his remarks, he referred to 
Representative J.C. Watts; Senator Rick Santorum; Gov. James S. Gilmore 
III of Virginia, chairman, Republican Party; Representative William M. 
Thomas, chairman, House Committee on Ways and Means; and Senator Charles 
Grassley, chairman, Senate Committee on Finance.