[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
[February 7, 2005]
[Pages 176-177]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Cabinet Meeting and an Exchange With Reporters
February 7, 2005

    The President. This is my first Cabinet meeting of the year 2005. I 
welcomed new members of our Cabinet to the table and congratulated them 
on their confirmations. Today we discussed a lot of issues. I reminded 
them that the war on terror goes on, that--but mainly discussed the 
issue of the budget.
    We're submitting our budget today. OMB Director Josh Bolten will be presenting the budget at noon. It is a 
budget that sets priorities. Our priorities are winning the war on 
terror, protecting our homeland, growing our economy. It's a budget that 
focuses on results. The taxpayers of America don't want us spending 
their money on something that's not achieving results.
    It's a budget that reduces and eliminates redundancy. It's a budget 
that is a lean budget. People on both sides of the aisle have called 
upon the administration to submit a budget that helps meet our 
obligations of--our goal of reducing the deficit in half over a 5-year 
period, and this budget does just that. Discretionary spending is--will 
increase at a rate less than inflation. Plus, we've begun some reforms 
on the mandatory side. Congress needs to look at this budget, and 
Congress needs to act on this budget in a fiscally responsible way.
    I'll be glad to answer some questions. Terry [Terence Hunt, 
Associated Press].

Visits by Israeli and Palestinian Leaders

    Q. Mr. President, what do you hope to accomplish by inviting Prime 
Minister Sharon and President Abbas to Washington separately? And why do 
you think there's a better chance of success now, than early effort--
earlier efforts like the Red Sea summit?
    The President. First of all, Prime Minister [President] * 
Abbas comes to the table with a 
mandate from a lot of Palestinians. He has been through an election. He 
was endorsed by the Palestinian people.
    Secondly, any meeting is part of a process, because in order to 
achieve the objective of two states living side by side in peace, there 
needs to be a level of trust between all parties--``all parties'' being, 
obviously, Israel and the Palestinians but trust with the United States, 
trust with the United Nations, trust with Europe, trust with the parties 
who are going to be investing in a Palestinian state, for example. And 
so what you're watching is a process unfolding, where people are 
becoming more trustworthy.
    I have been impressed by Prime Minister [President] * Abbas's commitment to fighting off terror. I've 
been impressed by what he is--his public statements. I've also been 
impressed by the fact that Israel helped the Palestinians have an 
election, went out of their way to make sure that people were allowed to 
go to the polls. And the meetings just indicate that there's more work 
to be done, and I look forward to meeting with them.
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    * White House correction.
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    Steve [Steve Holland, Reuters].

Fiscal Year 2006 Budget

    Q. Thank you, sir. How hard is it going to be to get Congress to go 
along with your budget when it cuts some popular programs that Congress 
has refused to go along with in the past?
    The President. Well, that's a great question. I look forward to 
explaining to the American people why we made some of the requests that 
we made in our budget. I fully understand that sometimes it's hard to 
eliminate a program that sounds good.

[[Page 177]]

But by getting people to focus on results--I was saying to Members of 
Congress, ``Show us the results as to whether or not this program is 
working''--I think we'll get a pretty good response.
    I will tell you, we go into this process upbeat because we've worked 
closely with the Congress the last four budget cycles. And the Congress 
appropriators--Congress and the appropriators met our budget requests. I 
mean, there's a collaborative effort. We've had a history of being 
successful in terms of passing good, strong budgets, and so I'm very 
optimistic that we can do so again this year. Josh Bolten will be up, outlining the budget, our Cabinet Secretaries 
will be talking about certain aspects of their respective budgets, and I 
think people will see that it's a commonsense approach to the budgets.
    April [April Ryan, American Urban Radio Networks].
    Q. Yes, Mr. President. I'm ready, too. [Laughter]
    The President. Did somebody tip you off that I might call upon you, 
or is it just----
    Q. I've been watching you lately. [Laughter]
    The President. All right. [Laughter]
    Q. First of all, you're talking about equality and keeping 
everything on a level playing field for everyone. Many people are saying 
that this budget proposal is not even. You're cutting out many programs 
for the disadvantaged. And also, what was one of the main programs that 
you cut that you really had a hard time in cutting as you looked at 
things that were copies of another?
    The President. I'm going to let Josh answer the degree-of-difficulty 
question because we've--we're asking for Congress to cut and/or reduce 
150 different programs. The important question that needs to be asked 
for all constituencies is whether or not the programs achieve a certain 
result. Have we set goals, and are those goals being met? And the poor 
and disadvantaged absolutely ought to be asking that question too. In 
other words, what is the goal of a particular program? And if that goal 
isn't being met, the question ought to be asked, why isn't the goal 
being met?
    And that's the questions we've been asking. And after a while, we 
get tired of asking that question. So, finally, it is to take resources 
and direct them to programs that are working. And that's what you'll 
find in the education budgets and the health budgets, for example. And 
those are very legitimate questions, and the people deserve to have them 
answered, which this administration will answer in a forthright fashion.
    Thank you all for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 11:15 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu 
Mazen) of the Palestinian Authority. A reporter referred to Prime 
Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.