[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 5 (Monday, February 5, 2001)]
[Pages 250-254]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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.

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    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 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 initiatives 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 Medicare 
delivery system. It

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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 
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--one of these 
radio addresses for tomorrow--and I talked about the single mom

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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. 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, increasing the child 
credit, we make that middle class, that dream of ownership so much more 
accessible, and that's what 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.

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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 
Representatives J.C. Watts; Governor James S. Gilmore III of Virginia, 
chairman, Republican Party; Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill; 
Representative William M. Thomas, chairman, House Committee on Ways and 
Means; and Senator Charles Grassley, chairman, Senate Committee on 
Finance; National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice; and Defense 
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.