[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 25 (Monday, June 25, 2001)]
[Pages 946-950]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Business Roundtable

June 20, 2001

    Thank you very much. Well, welcome to the White House. [Laughter] 
The Vice President and I are honored to be with you today. As I 
understand it, I'm to speak; the Vice President is to speak; Colin 
Powell is to speak; and Zoellick is to speak. And so I thank you all for 
your interest.

[[Page 947]]

    Since I'm not going to be here to introduce the Vice President, Dick 
Cheney is a fabulous partner. Many of you know him; he brings a lot of 
good judgment and a steady hand. And my administration is going to be 
successful because of the players in it, and he's going to be one of the 
key players. And I'm really honored that he's here and honored that he's 
the Vice President.
    Zoellick is doing a pretty good job, too. [Laughter] I know because 
I got to see him in action in Europe. I had an interesting experience in 
Europe. First of all, it's a huge honor to represent America overseas. 
And it was an important trip because it gave me a chance to reinforce my 
administration's commitment to the European alliances--to NATO, to the 
expansion of NATO, to working with the European Union, and the expansion 
of the European Union.
    There were some doubts in Europe as to whether or not ours would be 
a nation that would be internationalists with an American flavor, and 
they found out that we are. And I come home feeling upbeat about the 
relationships that I made and about the messages I was able to deliver.
    And secondly, I had a very good visit with Mr. Putin. I wasn't sure 
what to make of the man. I always was withholding judgment until I had a 
chance to meet him. But I found him to be a forward-thinking person and 
someone with whom our Nation should and will work to bring security to 
that part of the world and to bring prosperity, hopefully through trade, 
to the Russian people.
    One of the things he asked is that I assemble a delegation, headed 
by somebody close to me. So I picked Don Evans, who is not only my close 
friend but Secretary of Commerce, to travel to Russia with some 
entrepreneurs and some American business people. And we will do that 
this summer. I believe he's interested in having a good relationship, 
and I know I am. And that's a pretty good start.
    But one of the things that--I got to see Bob Zoellick in action on 
was our discussions about trade with the Europeans. I was able to make a 
firm commitment to our European partners that we want trade. We want 
open markets. We want to do everything in our power to make trade 
easier, not harder. I also reminded them that it's important for our 
economy to grow. If you want to trade with the United States, it's 
important to have a trading partner whose economy is vital and strong, 
where capital is flowing freely.
    That's why I assured them that we were on the right track when it 
came to balancing our environmental needs and economic growth and 
assured them that we share the same goal of reducing CO<INF>2</INF>, but 
we will do so in a way that doesn't damage our economy, that we believe 
that you can have economic vitality and good stewardship of our 
resources.
    And we also--I reminded them that one of the things our Nation 
needed to do was to develop a sound energy plan. It comes as a surprise 
to some that ours is the first administration who's willing to develop 
an energy plan and not only willing to develop one but to defend it, an 
energy plan that Dick will describe in detail, that's based upon sound 
conservation, more supply, and the ability to get supply to consumers.
    We had a great discussion, and what I'd like to do before I talk 
about asking your help on a key legislative matter when it comes to 
trade, is I'd like to thank you first for helping on tax relief. Our 
economy is sputtering. Many of you know that firsthand. And I believe 
that the best we can do in Government, at least in our part of 
Government, is to provide fiscal stimulus.
    And the package that we have done is a good package. It's one that 
will not only put money in the hands of American consumers; it is one 
also that brings some certainty into the Tax Code. In other words, it's 
certain that tax relief is going to happen, and hopefully, that will 
stimulate confidence in the entrepreneurial sector.
    Secondly, a lot of folks don't understand this, but there's a lot of 
small businesses that will benefit from the reduction of all rates, not 
just a few but all rates. Many of the small-business owners and the 
entrepreneurs in our respective States pay tax rates at the personal 
level, not the corporate level. They're sole proprietors; they're mom-
and-pops that pay personal income taxes. And when you drop that top rate 
like we did, it's going to stimulate economic growth and the flow of 
capital throughout our economy, which is

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going to be important to recovery. And so I want to thank you for the 
tax relief package. It was necessary. It was important. And it was 
timely.
    And secondly, I want to thank you for your help on an education 
plan. It passed the House. The bill passed the Senate 91 to 8, and it's 
now headed to conference. And I hope that the leadership will move that 
bill to get it to my desk so that public school districts can plan for 
the reforms inherent in the package. It's important to get that bill 
signed as soon as possible so that these school districts that are 
beginning to wonder what Federal dollars mean in the coming school year 
will have time to plan. They don't need to play politics with the school 
bill. This bill rises above partisan politics. It's important to get it 
going.
    The inherent reforms in the bill are these. One, we set high 
standards and high expectations. It's--the philosophy is fairly simple. 
It says, every child can learn. Secondly, we believe in local control of 
schools. We spend Federal money without a lot of strings. There's a lot 
more flexibility now at the local level.
    It recognizes--this bill recognizes that one size does not fit all 
when it comes to educating children. The issues in Texas, in south 
Texas, are different from the issues in Vermont or Connecticut. And the 
issues in south Texas are different from the issues in north Texas. 
There needs to be flexibility when it comes to developing the tactics 
necessary to make sure every child learns.
    But the cornerstone of reform in this bill says this: It says, if 
you receive Federal money, you must measure. This is a major overhaul of 
the education philosophy. It says, in return for Federal help, you, the 
school districts, and the States must develop strong accountability 
measures so that we know--we know--whether children are learning. It's a 
paradigm shift--to use a fancy word.
    All of a sudden, we're beginning to ask the question, ``Do you know 
what you're supposed to know?'' At present or in the recent past, a 
question was asked, ``How old are you? Well, if you're six, we'll just 
move you here, and if you're 10, you're supposed to be here, and if 
you're 14, you're here.'' It was a process-driven world that shuffled 
many kids through our system without asking the question, ``What do you 
know?'' And without saying, ``If you don't know what you're supposed to 
know, we'll make sure you do early, before it's too late.'' This is a 
great piece of legislation, and many of you helped work on it, and I 
want to thank you for that very much.
    I gave a speech at Notre Dame, where I talked about the next step of 
welfare reform. I said that--I began with Lyndon Johnson's speech at the 
University of Texas in the midsixties, where he declared a War on 
Poverty. I then said that there was some unintended consequences of that 
War on Poverty. Many people became dependent upon Government. While it 
helped some and there are some fine programs that came out of it, many 
folks became dependent upon Government, and many in our society became 
dependent on Government to provide compassion. In other words, people 
looked and said, ``Well, don't worry. The Federal Government will solve 
the woes of our citizenry. We don't have to do anything as citizens.''
    I then said that the reforms signed by President Clinton and passed 
by a Republican Senate and House on welfare reform address one-half of 
the equation. It reduced dependency upon Government. It's now time to 
address the compassionate side of effective welfare reform.
    And one of the statistics I noted in my speech was how abysmal 
corporate giving is to religious organizations whose sole intent is to 
help people, people who have heard the call, ``What can I do to help a 
neighbor in need?''--people who live by the golden rule. And yet there 
are many charters of corporate America that refuse--or not refuse, just 
can't give and don't want to give--to organizations whose intent it is 
to exist in neighborhood after neighborhood to solve people's lives by 
helping their souls. And one of my calls to corporate America is, please 
address the issue of funding faith-based and community-based groups, 
whose soul purpose it is to make somebody's life better.
    One of the big initiatives I'm confident we're going to get through 
the Congress is one that says, we understand there are thousands of 
children who could easily be left behind in America, particularly those 
whose

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parents may be in prison or a parent is in prison. And what I want to 
do--and we put money in the budget--is I want mentoring programs all 
across the country to address, specifically, the needs of these 
children. I want there to be some citizen who puts his arm around a 
child and says, ``Somebody loves you here in America. Somebody cares for 
you. Somebody feels your hurt and your pain.'' And you all can help 
those programs, and I urge you to do so.
    Many of you give to great causes, but please don't forget the faith-
based organizations that exist for the sole purpose of loving a 
neighbor, just like you'd like to be loved yourself.
    And I want to ask your help, too, on trade. I don't think 
Americans--some Americans--really understand the benefit of trade, fully 
understand that trade helps people who want to find work, that open 
trade is vital to--for economic growth. It's essential that we send the 
message out that trade is good for the working men and women of America.
    I've seen it in my own State. Texas is a great beneficiary of NAFTA, 
and so is Mexico, which is the most fantastic news of all. We want our 
partners to succeed. If Mexico is our friend, which I believe she is, we 
want Mexico to be prosperous. We also want Mexico to be prosperous 
because we want our people to be able to find work at home.
    People are coming to America because they want to feed their 
families. Family values does not stop at the Rio Bravo, and America has 
got to understand that. But America has also got to understand the hope 
of free trade, not only with Mexico and Canada but in our hemisphere. 
And that's why we're--that's why the first meeting I had was the Summit 
of the Americas, to talk about the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.
    My belief is that when you have a secure neighborhood and a 
prosperous neighborhood, America is better off. And so the first summit 
I had with foreign leaders with--34 democratically elected leaders 
showed up in Quebec City, and the cornerstone of those discussions was 
open markets and free trade.
    We're going to have another global--another round of global trade 
talks that Ambassador Zoellick is leading from my administration. And we 
urge the European Union to cooperate with us to begin those talks. But 
in order for me to be effective on trade, I need trade promotion 
authority. I need the ability to speak with a single voice for our 
country. I need to have the capacity as an administration to negotiate 
free trade agreements without the fear of them being undermined. 
Otherwise, our trading partners are going to be confused and concerned 
about an honest and open dialog.
    And yet, the President doesn't have trade promotion authority. And 
so I'm asking you to help; join us; get this bill passed through the 
Congress. And we should not let legitimate environmental labor concerns 
undermine the capacity for the President to make good free trade 
agreements.
    I explained to the critics in Congress: There are some who are 
legitimately concerned about the environment and labor. But I remind 
them that if you believe in trade, you believe that prosperity will 
spread; if you believe in trading with a country, it will help that 
country grow economically. And a country that is more prosperous is one 
more likely to be able to take care of their environment, and one more 
prosperous is one more likely to take care of their workforce. And if 
you believe in improving the environment and helping the labor 
conditions in countries, don't wall off those countries. Don't create--
don't enhance poverty by refusing to allow there to be trade.
    Now, there are some who want to put codicils on the trade protection 
authority for one reason: They don't like free trade. They're 
protectionists, and they're isolationists. And we must reject that kind 
of thought here in America. Free trade is good for America. It's good 
for our trading partners. It will help alleviate poverty. And as 
importantly, it will help democracy spread her wings. Because when you 
introduce the disciplines and freedoms of a free market and an open 
market, it's amazing what happens in totalitarian countries. They taste 
freedom in the economy, and they begin to ask for freedom with religion 
and freedom with speech and freedom to express themselves in the ballot 
box.
    Now, our Nation is better off as a free trading country, and I am 
here to ask for your help. It's important. It's a priority of my 
administration, and we're going to dedicate the

[[Page 950]]

time and energy and effort to see if we can't get a good bill through 
the United States Congress.
    You might be able to tell, I'm kind of enthusiastic about my work. 
[Laughter] You would be, too, if you got to see what I see. See, I get 
to see an America from a different perspective. I get to see an America 
that is--loves her Government; sometimes they like the President. 
[Laughter] But they care about the country. This is a fantastic land. It 
is a land of decent and caring and honorable citizens who really want 
the best for their families and for their neighbors and for their 
country.
    It is a huge honor to be the President of this great land. We've got 
some great causes ahead of us: peace and prosperity. But there is the 
mission also of lifting this country's spirit. And I'm dedicated to 
doing that. I want to call upon the best of America and American 
citizens. And I'm enthusiastic about that calling, because I truly 
believe it will leave this land a better place.
    Thank you all for being here, and God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 3:17 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Vladimir Putin of 
Russia.