[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 7 (Monday, February 19, 2001)]
[Pages 284-287]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Exchange With Reporters Aboard Air Force One

February 13, 2001

    The President. Glad to see you all again. It's been a while since 
I've been able to emerge out of the--are you doing okay?

Tax Cut/Legislative Agenda

    Q. We wondered what your thoughts were on the retail sales jumping 
seven-tenths of a percentage point last month, and does that still speak 
to the need for a tax cut?
    The President. Oh, I think it's one good statistic amongst a sea of 
some pretty dismal statistics. I am concerned about the economy. I 
strongly believe the combination of monetary policy, fiscal policy will 
help ease whatever economic pain is on the horizon. I'm obviously very 
pleased about those numbers and hope that other numbers bear out that 
piece of good news.
    Q. Are you going to try anything beyond what you've done already to 
try to get Congress to move up? I know you oppose retroactive, but they 
still have to pass to pass it.
    The President. No, we've got to get it through, and I understand 
that. It's just, you know, the calendar is what it is, and we'll work 
with the Congress to get all our bills moving as quickly as possible. 
They're in charge of the timeframe, and I believe we're going to get a 
good hearing on our pieces of legislation as quickly as possible. But it 
will take a while.

U.S.S. Greenville

    Q. Are you concerned about the allegations from the Japanese that 
the crew of the Greenville stood by and did not offer assistance?
    The President. I called the Prime Minister today. That's why I was 3 
minutes late, on the on-time administration. [Laughter] But I spoke to 
Prime Minister Mori. I assured him that we will do everything we can to 
try to recover and find--find or recover the bodies. He did not bring up 
that allegation to me. I have yet to hear all the facts from Secretary 
Rumsfeld, and I look forward to what he has to say. I am--I did assure 
him--I apologized on behalf of the country.

Marc Rich Pardon

    Q. Are you distracted at all by the furor over the Marc Rich pardon 
and the former President?
    The President. Not at all.
    Q. Not a distraction?
    The President. Not at all. I will tell you one thing, just in terms 
of the former President. All the allegations that they took stuff off of 
Air Force One is simply not true, for example. But no, I'm not the--sit 
down; I'll come back.
    Q. Thank you, Mr. President.

[At this point, the President left the press area. Later, he returned.]

    The President. As promised. [Laughter]

[[Page 285]]

Strategic Vision Reassessment

    Q. [Inaudible]--talked about modernizing the military a number of 
times. Should Members of Congress who are trying to promote their own 
program, like the F-22 or some of these older programs, should they be 
worried at this point?
    The President. Well, I think they ought to wait until we have--the 
Secretary presents a strategic vision. I said during the campaign--as 
you know, Tom--I worry about defense spending based upon politics and 
not based upon a strategic vision. I said that again today. I said the 
strategy and the spending ought to follow. I don't think Members ought 
to worry about that. I think they ought to be pleased with that type of 
approach to budgeting.
    Q. Will you be shutting down some major weapons programs?
    The President. Let's wait until the review is finished.

President's Meetings With the Military

    Q. Mr. President, as you've been talking to the soldiers and sailors 
the last couple of days, what kind of response do you feel like you've 
gotten? What have you learned from them?
    The President. First of all, I think the men and women who wear the 
uniform respect the office of the Presidency, for which I'm grateful. I 
think they're just honored that the President would come and say hello.
    I was taken aback by the--``taken aback'' isn't the right word. I 
was--there was a lot of concern about overdeployments yesterday at Fort 
Stewart.
    Q. About what?
    The President. Overdeployments, it was on people's minds. I'm not 
surprised that was--talking about pay, and they were pleased to hear 
there were going to be some more pay increase coming. But there was a 
lot of talk about extended trips overseas. It's really not one trip; 
it's the multiple trips; and it's the time away from base, the training 
required.
    You know, people are deployed to the Balkans. They go through 
training to prepare for the mission in the Balkans. They go to the 
Balkans. They then come back and have to be retrained for the mission 
that they used to be a part of. And sometimes the training exercises are 
not at the base in which they're--you know, their main base. And so 
there was just a lot of time away from their homes, and that was a 
concern.
    I was touched by the ceremony when I reviewed the troops, to look in 
the eyes of the men and women who wear the uniform. It's a pretty 
powerful feeling, and it reminded me that we need to be very judicious 
and careful about committing our troops.
    And today's incident--they called me early this morning about the 
Blackhawks that had crashed over Oahu. And it was right on the heels of 
the visit when I got to see, stare people in the eyes, realize how 
precious the lives are of everybody, of course--the soldiers are my 
direct responsibility as the Commander in Chief.
    It was just--it was a very necessary trip, because it really 
personalized the job. I take the responsibilities incredibly seriously. 
I do want to see more of the military, meet more of the troops. I want 
to see more of the missions. I get a much better feel for what's 
happening in different--specialties.
    Q. [Inaudible]--really respect the office. Did you get some feedback 
that they appreciate you or appreciate what you are going to do for the 
military?
    The President. I think they've got high hopes for me and my 
administration. I felt like yesterday's statement, that first things 
first are the people who wear the uniform and that the first public 
statement I made since--or the first speech I gave on a military 
installation had to do with better pay and better housing and better 
medical care.
    There is going to be--you know, redesigning the strategic vision of 
the military is going to take some time. But we must do it. There are 
going to be some tough choices to make, but that's why you get elected.

U.S.S. Greenville

    Q. Mr. President, on the Greenville, U.S.S. Greenville, would you 
support a salvage effort?
    The President. We've got an unmanned sub heading out there to 
determine exactly what the status is. I need to find the facts. I think 
we need to do what we need to do to get the bodies out of there, if 
they're there.

[[Page 286]]

    Q. You said you had apologized to Prime Minister Mori, but you got 
cut off.
    The President. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, I did. I said I was--I 
apologized on behalf of our Nation for the accident that took place and 
the lives that are missing.
    Q. Did he ask you to do anything or did he----
    The President. He asked me to do everything I could--which we are 
doing--to find, to locate the missing folks.
    Q. As a former military man yourself, sir, know the absolute 
preeminence of safety--every operation. Were you comfortable, as a 
former military officer that--were taken?
    The President. John, I haven't seen the full briefing yet. And 
that's going to go up through the proper chain of command. I know the 
Secretary of Defense has asked that question and, once the facts have 
surfaced, I will--I'm sure it will be brought to my attention, and I'll 
be able to answer that question better after I hear the facts.

President's Upcoming Visit to Mexico

    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. Well, I'm looking forward to be with my friend 
Vicente Fox to make sure that he understands that when I say friends, 
that we'll be friends. I mean it. There will be a lot of discussions, a 
lot of issues. Trade is a big issue, energy a big issue, immigration a 
big issue. And I look forward to discussing them.
    It's really a continuation of a chat we had in Dallas. He had been 
elected; I hadn't been. But we had stopped off in Dallas, had a chance 
to visit with him. I've known him from before, and I've got a good 
relationship with him. It's why I'm going to Mexico. I think it's going 
to be a good signal to the Mexicans and others in our hemisphere that 
the best foreign policy starts at home. We've got to have good relations 
in the hemisphere.
    I assured the Prime Minister of Canada that my vision of the 
hemisphere goes both north and south. We had a really good visit, by the 
way. Chretien is a very interesting man, a down-to-earth fellow.

Mexico and California Energy Shortages

    Q. He's the only politician who speaks out of one side of his mouth, 
and he's admitted that, himself. [Laughter] Do you think a potential 
solution to California's energy crisis lies in Mexico?
    The President. Could be. You know, you've been reading talk about, 
well, Mexico needs to import natural gas. But every mcf of newly 
discovered gas in our hemisphere helps the overall supply picture 
throughout the hemisphere. Now, that sounds obvious, but somehow people 
are writing that, ``Well, you know, the idea of maybe working with 
Mexico to attract foreign capital, develop natural gas really won't help 
in the United States.'' Of course it will help in the United States. It 
means that there will be less exports from the United States to Mexico. 
There's an issue evolving right now in California about natural gas 
going from California to the Mexican powerplant. I don't know exactly 
what the status is. It's conceivable that that gas will be interrupted, 
and it will create, obviously, a problem for our neighbors to the south. 
But gas can flow both ways. And any gas down in Mexico that improves the 
Mexican situation will help America.
    Secondly, the idea of--I am going to discuss this with the 
President, about improving the powerplants to be able to help additional 
power get into the western grid. That would obviously be farther west 
than where we're going to be. But yes, I think with an opportunity--
potential.
    Q. [Inaudible]--natural gas prices. Is there something the 
Government can do? Some people really need to----
    The President. Yes, they are. We supported LIHEAP, of course. But 
what the natural gas price will end up doing is attracting more 
investment, more capital, more exploration, which we surely need. We've 
got a shortage of gas and a growing demand. That's why the price is 
where it is. The issue in the State of California, they didn't increase 
the supply of energy, but the demand for energy increased in a 
significant way. It turns out the Internet, while it created a brand new 
economy, also created a huge need for power. We need more power, pure 
and simple. That's part of the discussions with the President of Mexico 
will be, to determine whether or not there is the ability to jointly 
work on the ability to generate more power.

[[Page 287]]

Investigation of Presidential Pardons

    Q. Sir, I just wanted to follow up on the previous question. You had 
mentioned--you've often said, about your predecessor, that you want to 
look forward, and not the past. Do you think it's a good idea for 
Congress to be investigating pardons or for the Justice Department to do 
that? Or should they just let it go?
    The President. I think it's time to move on. And----
    Q. Will you ask Chairman----
    The President. No, the Congress is going to what they're going to 
do. They've already started the process.
    Q. What about your Attorney General?
    The President. I haven't talked to the Attorney General about it. I 
read something about it today, but----
    Q. He would consider----
    Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. The Attorney General just simply said 
that he would look at what Congress was doing.
    The President. Yes, I don't think--didn't investigate; he was 
responding to a congressional inquiry. You know, the Congress is going 
to do what they're going to do. My attitude is, you know, all this 
business about the transition--it's time to move on; it is. It's time to 
stay looking forward, and that's what I'm going to do.
    Q. Are you concerned that there's an--the appearance of a quid pro 
quo with all of the money flowing into the Democratic coffers?
    The President. That's up for the able journalists in America to 
determine.
    Always a pleasure. Sorry we don't get to spend so much quality time 
like we used to in the campaign.

Baseball

    Q. Are you warming up for opening day? It's only 6 weeks.
    The President. Down in Houston? [Laughter]
    Q. Are you going to work with Tony Williams to bring a ball team to 
Washington?
    The President. You're not going to believe this. It was one of the 
first topics he brought up during our conversation--seriously. 
[Laughter]

Note: The President spoke at 12:15 p.m. en route from Norfolk, VA, to 
Andrews Air Force Base, MD. In his remarks, he referred to Prime 
Minister Yoshiro Mori of Japan; President Vicente Fox of Mexico; Prime 
Minister Jean Chretien of Canada; and Mayor Anthony A. Williams of the 
District of Columbia. The President also referred to LIHEAP, the Low 
Income Home Energy Assistance Program. A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of this exchange.