[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 4 (Monday, January 31, 2000)]
[Pages 145-151]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Fiscal Year 2001 Federal Budget and an Exchange With 
Reporters

January 25, 2000

    The President. Hello.
    Q. Good morning.
    The President. I think it's just afternoon. [Laughter] I'm glad you 
all got here; I thought school was canceled today. [Laughter]
    Seven years ago, when I came to Washington, our Nation was burdened 
with a $290 billion annual deficit, and our national debt had quadrupled 
in 12 years. Interest rates were high and growth was low. Vice President 
Gore and I set our Nation on a new path of fiscal responsibility, 
opening markets, investing in our people and new technologies. We passed 
strong deficit reduction packages in both 1993 and in 1997 and made 
tough choices in each and every budget. This put the Nation on a course 
of fiscal discipline, while continuing to invest in our people and our 
future.
    Last year I asked the Congress to use every single dollar of our 
Social Security surplus to pay down the debt and to use the interest 
savings from that debt reduction to lengthen the life of Social 
Security.
    Now we see the results of the last 7 years: the first back-to-back 
budget surpluses in 42 years; last year's surplus of $124 billion, the 
largest in our history. The latest numbers from the Treasury indicate 
the surplus for this year will be even larger. In just the last 2 years, 
we've already paid down $140 billion of the national debt. Through 
unprecedented

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debt buybacks in the last few weeks, we're able to finance the debt on 
the most favorable possible terms.
    Over the last 2 years, there have been repeated efforts to push us 
off the path of fiscal discipline, with large and irresponsible tax 
cuts. Because we've resisted these efforts, our debt is $1.7 trillion 
less this year than it was projected to be back in 1993. Now is not the 
time to let up on a strategy that is plainly working.
    Today I am announcing that because of the choices we have made, the 
budget I will submit for 2001 accelerates the date that we will be able 
to pay off our debt to 2013,
2 years earlier than we had originally planned. We will do this by 
protecting Social Security funds and dedicating the interest savings to 
Social Security, allowing us, in addition to paying off the debt, to 
extend the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund to 2050.
    We will also be able to make Medicare secure now, through 2025. And 
we will be debt-free for the first time since 1835, when our Nation just 
had 24 States and fewer than 15 million people. Our children and their 
children will not inherit the crippling burden of interest payments that 
we faced 7 years ago.
    What does this mean for Americans in their daily lives? Already, the 
debt reduction means that American families pay, on average, $2,000 less 
per year on their home mortgages, $200 less on a loan for school or for 
a car. This new initiative will help even more with loans and credit 
card payments. Debt reduction helps everyone by getting the Government 
out of competition for loans, which makes interest rates lower overall. 
More investment, more jobs, higher wages for Americans result.
    It makes us much more competitive in the global economy, and less 
vulnerable to shocks elsewhere. It helps other nations which really need 
to borrow the money to get their economies going, and, in turn, they 
will be better trade partners with us.
    All of this is good news. But as I have said over and over again, 
there is no room for complacency. We got here by making hard choices and 
sticking to a strategy that works--that builds opportunity and 
reinforces responsibility.
    I remain committed to that strategy. I ask the Republican majority 
in Congress to put politics aside and join me. We've got so much work to 
do in the weeks ahead to make sure that we seize this historic 
opportunity.

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

    I also, before I take your questions, and because of the remarkable 
weather you can see outside, would like to say just a word about relief 
for the thousands of families that are struggling with increased heating 
bills and cold this winter. We've been monitoring the situation daily, 
and based on the most recent data it is clear that a release of 
emergency funds from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is 
warranted. Therefore, today I am directing the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services to expedite the release of LIHEAP funds to Alaska and 
States in the Northeast which have experienced the greatest hardship. 
These funds will help keep more American families safe and warm this 
winter, and we'll get them out there just as quickly as we possibly can.
    Q. How much?
    The President. I don't know yet. We're working on it. We'll put it 
out as quick as we know.

FY 2001 Federal Budget

    Q. Mr. President, why isn't it right for the next President and the 
next Congress to put forward such a long-term plan as you're doing 
today?
    The President. Why isn't it right?
    Q. Yes, why shouldn't--Senator Lott says it ought to be for the next 
President and the next Congress to do programs like this. This is a very 
long-term initiative that you're putting forward today.
    The President. You mean the debt relief?
    Q. That's exactly right.
    The President. Well, I think they ought to follow it. But you've got 
to understand, even if we commit to this path, since every year the 
Congress will meet, they'll have to recommit to it. But it will be much 
easier--what we could do is derail them. If we had

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adopted, for example, the tax cut last year, we would have stopped that.
    What we're doing, by taking this position, is maximizing the choices 
that the next Congress and the next President will have. Except--on the 
Social Security thing, on debt relief. On Social Security, what I 
propose will take Social Security from 2034 to 2050. That is well beyond 
the life of most baby boomers. I would like to take it out 75 years. But 
I presume, based on what happened last year, that we won't be able to 
get enough bipartisan agreement to do that. So there will be plenty for 
the next President and the next Congress to do.
    And they will have to do that, because the life expectancy is going 
to go up so exponentially. And we've already gotten Medicare out 25 
years--keep in mind, Medicare was projected to go broke last year, when 
I took office. Now we've got it out to 2025. I think that it is 
appropriate to add the voluntary prescription drug benefit, and to take 
it out a little further by taking some of the reforms that all of us 
apparently agree on, based on the Medicare Commission that had heavy 
involvement by Senate Republicans and Democrats. And the Finance 
Committee's going to take that up. So there will be plenty for America 
to do next year and the years beyond. There always will be.
    Terry [Terence Hunt, Associated Press].

Iowa Caucuses

    Q.  Mr. President, what do you--what's your read on the results from 
Iowa? Were you surprised by the margins on both the Democratic and the 
Republican side? Can you give us your take?
    The President. Well, I think the Republican race was about as I 
thought it would be, and I think that the Vice President had a terrific 
victory last night in Iowa. And I think all the more impressive because 
he and Senator Bradley, I thought, both ran very substantive campaigns, 
very idea-oriented campaigns, and had that whole series of debates, 
which I think served the people very well. And I think he should be very 
proud of that, his strong effort. And I was very pleased to see that. 
But I don't have any real analysis of what happened in the insides of 
either one of the campaigns because I didn't follow it that closely.
    Q.  Well, you've been through this. I mean, as they go into New 
Hampshire, how does it affect the dynamic there?
    The President. I think it's a plus, but I agree with what the Vice 
President said last night, it's important not to overread it. The people 
of New Hampshire are very independent. They want to make a good choice. 
They understand that to some extent the choice they make affects the 
choices that the country has after the New Hampshire primary. And I 
think that you'll see all the candidates there really bearing down and 
trying to reach the voters, which is what they ought to do.

Elian Gonzalez

    Q. Mr. President, are you inclined to sign or veto any possible bill 
out of Congress that would grant Elian Gonzalez U.S. citizenship? And do 
you think it was a good idea for the two grandmothers to come here to 
meet with Congress, or are you concerned that might further politicize 
the process as you--[inaudible].
    The President. Well, first, I have done my best, as all of you know, 
to handle this in a nonpolitical way and to make the judgments for which 
the law provides. The judgment that the law provides for the INS to make 
is whether the father can properly be declared the guardian of the 
child, since the mother was, unfortunately, killed.
    And the case is now in court, and I would like to see--at a minimum, 
I would like to see this court case played out before the Congress takes 
action. I think we ought to try to let the legal system take its course.
    I understand that the strong feelings that exist in this country 
about the Castro government complicates this. And I know that that 
little boy has some relatives in this country who feel very strongly 
about that. And I guess his grandmothers, in coming up here, were 
reacting to what they thought about the extent to which the case had 
already been politicized.
    More than anything else, I wish that somehow--I mean, no one can 
really know for sure, I suppose, what terrible and probably

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not fully conscious burdens that child has already sustained because he 
lost his mother and because now he's being competed for in a way that is 
unusual for a 6-year-old child. And I know that--maybe it's just because 
I'm not running for anything, but I just somehow wish that whatever is 
best for this child could be done. And I know there are people who 
genuinely disagree about that, because plainly he would have more 
economic opportunity in this country. But all the evidence indicates 
that his father genuinely loved him and spent a great deal of time with 
him back in Cuba.
    So I think that--you know, what I have tried to do is to set up a 
circumstance where the people who were in a position to know the most 
and be the least influenced by whatever the political considerations are 
would at least have the maximum opportunity to wind up doing what was 
right for the child. I hope that somehow we can still find a way to do 
that.
    Q. For better or worse though--if I could follow up--for better or 
worse, though, politics is a reality in this situation.
    The President. Yes, it is.
    Q. Could you possibly veto any bill that would grant Elian Gonzalez 
U.S. citizenship?
    The President. I have not decided what to do, and I wouldn't rule 
that out. I just haven't decided what to do.
    Let me just say for the moment, if you take it out of the 
combustible, emotional nature of our relationship with Cuba and 
particularly the Cuban-American community in south Florida's 
relationship with Cuba, and you think about the issue, one of the things 
that I think we all need to think about is this could happen again. I 
mean, this sort of thing could happen again because you have so many 
people coming to our shores from all these different countries, and then 
shifting governments, shifting policies within countries. And what we do 
need is an analysis of whether we have the tools to maximize the chance 
that the kids involved and the families involved will be treated fairly, 
based on the merits of, particularly, the best interests of the child.
    And I think, again--I'm happy to talk to anybody about this and 
really try to think this through. I'm just trying to minimize the 
politics of it, because I think if you take this one decision out of 
context--it's not just Cuba, and it's not just this little boy--there 
are likely to be a lot of these things in the future as immigration 
flows increases, upheavals increase elsewhere, and as we know more and 
more about what goes on in other countries.
    This is something that ought to be thought about. But in my--I 
suppose I have tended to think of this child more from a point of view 
of a parent than anything else, and I wish I knew more about the facts 
even than I do, because I just--this poor kid has already lost his 
mother, and whatever happens, I'm sure he's going to carry certain 
burdens into his early adolescence that most of us did not carry. And 
somehow, whatever happens, I just hope it turns out to be best for him. 
He's a beautiful child.
    Yes.

2000 Election

    Q. Mr. President, in his victory statement yesterday, Governor Bush 
seemed to be throwing down the gauntlet against you. He seemed to be 
kicking off his major campaign against you. What do you have to say 
about that, and do you have a rebuttal? Are you going to do anything 
about it?
    The President. Well, I have, I guess, two responses. One is, this 
campaign is between the candidates and the American people, and they 
will evaluate all claims and charges, and they usually get it right. 
That's why we're all still around here, after 224 years. They almost 
always get it right. And so I'm going to leave most of that to them.
    Now, it is an unusual claim that we ought to somehow reject an 
approach that has given us the longest economic expansion in history and 
the lowest unemployment, welfare, and crime rolls in 30 years, not to 
mention the benefits of the family and medical leave law and the Brady 
law, which were vetoed in the previous administration. And I agree that 
the tax program he's proposed might well undo a lot of that, and he can 
make the claim that that's the basis on which the campaign ought to 
proceed. But I don't really want to get into an argument with him. He 
ought to--I think that ought to be something between him and the other 
candidates and the American people.

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    But I do think it's an unusual thing to say that what we really 
ought to do is change what has given us an unprecedented level not just 
of economic prosperity but of social progress and social cohesion, 
restored credibility of Government, proof that ideas really can matter 
to move the people forward. I think that that's a pretty hard argument 
to make.

FY 2001 Federal Budget

    Q. Mr. President, what's your projected surplus for the new budget, 
and doesn't that allow room for at least a modest tax cut?
    The President. Well, yes. First of all, I'm not--you will see--I 
think the Congressional Budget Office, I believe, when they're going to 
propose what they think, I think they will show you what the difficulty 
here is, because my understanding is, they're going to give you options. 
They will show you--that is, they'll show you--like every projected 
surplus, it depends on what you think the so-called baseline is.
    We believe that there has been greater growth, and there will be a 
larger surplus than we thought. But we believe--and I intend to propose, 
as I did last time, a set of tax cuts that I think are targeted to the 
middle class, targeted to sustain our economic growth, targeted to help 
lower income people and areas move into the middle class, that will keep 
America's economic expansion going.
    But I think the most important thing--I will say again, the most 
important thing is to keep our fiscal discipline--to keep paying down 
the debt, to get the country out of debt, to keep the interest rates 
down. Keep in mind, this is saving the average family $2,000 a year on 
home mortgage costs. We're--next month, we'll have the longest economic 
expansion in history, and long-term interest rates are lower now than 
they were in the bad economy of 1991--I mean, 1992. They're lower.
    So, yes we can have tax cuts. And yes, every year, and including 
next year, when I'm not here, and the years ahead, we can evaluate what 
the situation is. But I do not believe we should have very big tax cuts 
that will explode in the second 5 years of a 10-year period, and that 
ignore what the real investment needs of the country will be.
    And that's what I mean by this so-called baseline. You know, to use 
the '97 baseline and spending caps, when they were totally shredded last 
year, as a basis for estimating how you should spend everything else on 
a tax cut, means you're going to get back in deficit problems--just for 
example.
    So yes, we can have a tax cut. It ought to be modest; it ought to be 
targeted; it ought to be in the context of fiscal discipline. It ought 
not to explode in the second 5 years in a much bigger trajectory than it 
takes in the first 5 years.
    And again I say--one of you mentioned about decisions that could be 
made in the years ahead--you can always make those decisions--if things 
keep getting better, then you can do more. But you should always do it 
with an eye, in my judgment, toward conservative economic policies and 
toward always understanding that those things are easy to do, but 
they're difficult to undo if times get tough.
    Yes.

Indian Airlines Flight 814 Hijacking

    Q. Mr. President, do you now have reason to believe that the 
Pakistani Government may have been involved in that airplane hijacking?
    The President. No, we don't. We do not, no. I guess the simplest 
thing I can tell you is that we do not have evidence that the Pakistani 
Government was in any way involved in that hijacking; we don't.

State of the Union Address

    Q. Mr. President, on the State of the Union, we know how pumped up 
you get for the State of the Union, and I was wondering, considering 
that this is your last one, whether there's also a sense of bittersweet, 
that it's a bittersweet moment, too.
    The President. No, it's not bittersweet; it's nostalgic. One of the 
wonderful Navy stewards who works for me said this morning, he said, ``I 
can't believe we've been doing this for 7 years.'' [Laughter] And the 
time flies when it's a busy time, and you're absorbed--excuse me--
absorbed in what you're doing.

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    I don't feel bittersweet; I do feel some nostalgia. And I think it's 
something I'm very much trying to fight off, because I think the 
important thing is to keep the attention of the country focused on the 
future, and to keep my attention and the attention of the administration 
focused on the future, and the energy level very high. So I am working 
with that in mind, and I've worked very hard on the speech, and I'm 
still working on it.

Bipartisanship on the Legislative Agenda

    Q. Mr. President, you have a long list of things that you'd like to 
do. You've been rolling them out for the last couple weeks. There are 
things that weren't done last year. Realistically, what are the chances 
of any real bipartisan agreements with the Republican Congress?
    The President. I think that we have some significant chance of 
getting some of the substantive issues through--the Patients' Bill of 
Rights, the minimum wage, the gun reforms, the Brady background checks 
at the gun shows. I think that there is a better than 50-50 chance that 
a lot of the investments I have recommended will eventually prevail. And 
I am immensely hopeful about the new markets initiative, which is more 
than twice as big in this budget as it was last time, largely because 
there is a lot of bipartisan support for it, beginning with the Speaker 
of the House. So I'm very, very hopeful.
    You know, there's a part of that that has a special initiative for 
the Mississippi Delta, I believe, Senator Lott will support. So I'm 
hopeful. I'm going to do everything I can to get as much done as I can 
for the American people, and I'm quite hopeful.

Super Bowl XXXIV

    Q. Mr. President, we think we know how the Vice President feels, but 
what's your pick for the Super Bowl and why? [Laughter]
    The President. He can say and get in no trouble, can't he, because 
he's from Tennessee. I'm not going to pick one. But I'll tell you this--
I've followed it this year very closely. There were two great games last 
Sunday. And what I thought was going to happen 2 weeks ago I'm no longer 
so sure will.
    Q. Can you say what?
    The President. I don't think you can tell which one of them will 
win. You've got one that's a very powerful defensive team, Tennessee, 
with a capacity for real offense. And then you've got the most powerful 
offensive team playing against them, that was stymied last Sunday and 
played better defense than I thought they could. So I don't think you 
can predict which one of them is going to win this race.
    Q. Will you send a play to one of the coaches? [Laughter]
    The President. Would I what?
    Q. Send a play to one of the coaches?
    The President. No, I think they're perfectly capable of doing that 
without me. That's kind of like this campaign, you all want to get me 
involved in it, but I think the Vice President, Senator Bradley, 
Governor Bush, and Senator McCain, they can all do this without me. 
They're doing fine.

Hillary Clinton's Senate Campaign

    Q. Is your wife going to win?
    The President. I think so. I think she's done a good job with this, 
and she's getting into it. I certainly hope she does. I think it will be 
a good thing for New York and a good thing for our country.

Colombia

    Q. Mr. President, in regards to the Colombian aid package, are you 
worried at all about sending arms down to a country who is now in a 
civil war and there's no real guarantee about who will be in power even 
in the next 3, 4 years?
    The President. Well, I wouldn't go that far. I think, for one thing, 
we want to try to preserve and strengthen democracy in Colombia. It's a 
very old democracy that's under the greatest stress perhaps in its 
history. And there's always a risk when you go out on a limb to try to 
save a neighbor and help people to help themselves that it won't work.
    But I think that--I believe the risks and the investment is 
something that we ought to do. And again, I believe that there will be 
significant bipartisan support here. I'd be surprised if we don't have 
large numbers of Republicans and Democrats supporting this. And I think 
we're going into this with our eyes wide open.

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    One of the things that we have to do is to try to help them gain 
some measure of control over their own country again. And if you look at 
Colombia, in the sort of the intersection of the narcotraffickers and 
the political rebels, you see a picture of what you might see much more 
of in the 21st century world, with sort of the enemies of nation-states 
forming networks of support across national borders and across otherwise 
discrete interests, like narcotraffickers, organized criminals, and 
political terrorists, weapons dealers.
    So this will be an interesting test run for what I predict to you 
not only our Nation but others in our position will have to face over 
the next two decades. And it is something, again, I'm going to work very 
hard to build a bipartisan consensus on this and take this out of 
politics, because I believe that this is not only something we should do 
for our friend and neighbor in the country that is either the production 
or transit point for about 80 percent of the cocaine that gets dumped in 
this country; but also, if you will, a test run for the kind of 
challenges that my successors and our people will face in the years 
ahead.
    Thank you.

Iowa Caucuses

    Q.  Did you miss being in Iowa? I'll bet you did.
    The President. A little bit. I did. I love it there. They've been 
good to me. But I was interested in it. It's interesting to me to watch 
it unfold and watch how the decisions they make--which is why I don't 
want you guys to get me into it. This should be their campaigns, and 
they should make the decisions. And we should trust the people. They'll 
get it right. They always do.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:10 p.m. in the Briefing Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to former Senator Bill Bradley; 
Elian Gonzalez, rescued off the coast of Florida on November 25, 1999; 
Juan Gonzalez, Mariela Gonzalez, and Raquel Rodriquez, Elian's father 
and grandmothers; and Gov. George W. Bush of Texas. Indian Airlines 
Flight 814, from Kathmandu to New Delhi, was hijacked on December 24, 
1999.