[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 35 (Monday, September 3, 2001)]
[Pages 1223-1224]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

August 25, 2001

    Good morning. Congress will shortly return to Washington to make its 
final spending decisions for 2002. A new budget report released this 
past week shows that despite the economic slowdown that began in the 
third quarter of last year, the Federal budget is strong, healthy, and 
in balance. In fact, the 2002 budget surplus will be the second biggest 
surplus in American history.
    The report also shows we are funding our Nation's priorities, 
meeting our commitments to Social Security and Medicare, reducing taxes, 
and still retiring record amounts of debt. This is a great achievement, 
and it happened because Congress worked with me this spring to agree to 
a responsible total level of spending.
    Congress also worked with me to cut income taxes for the first time 
in a generation, the right policy at exactly the right time to boost our 
sagging economy. The faster our economy grows, the stronger the Federal 
budget will be.
    The greatest threat to our budget outlook is the danger that 
Congress will be tempted this fall to break its earlier commitments by 
spending too much. The old way in Washington is to believe that the more 
you spend, the more you care. What mattered was the size of the line in 
the budget, not the effect of that line on real people's lives. My 
administration takes a new approach. We want to spend your hard-earned 
money as carefully as you do. And when we spend the people's money, we 
insist on results.
    Today my Office of Management and Budget is releasing a report 
identifying 14 long-neglected management problems in the Federal 
Government and offering specific solutions to fix them. For example, the 
United States Government is the world's single largest purchaser of 
computers and other technologies for gathering and using information. In 
2002 we will spend $45 billion on information technology. That's more 
than we've budgeted for highways and roads. Yet so far, and unlike 
private sector companies, this large investment has not cut the 
Government's cost or improved people's lives in any way we can measure.
    Another example: The General Accounting Office has, year after year, 
found that the Federal student aid programs are run in ways that make 
them vulnerable to fraud and waste. And year after year, virtually 
nothing has been done to make sure that Federal aid intended for needy 
students goes only to the needy.
    With the help of congressional leaders like Senator Fred Thompson, 
we are going to take on these problems, and others like them, with a 
focused, targeted reform agenda. We'll introduce greater competition 
into Government and make Government more attentive to citizens.
    Americans demand top-quality service from the private sector. They 
should get the same top-quality service from their Government. I've 
asked Cabinet Secretaries and agency heads to name a chief operating 
officer who will be held accountable for the performance of that agency. 
These officers will make up the President's Management Council, to build 
a leadership team that listens, learns, and innovates.
    Taxpayers work hard to earn the money they send the Government. 
Government should work equally hard to ensure that the money is spent 
wisely. I will work with Congress to build a Government that is 
responsive to the people's needs and responsible with our people's 
money.
    Thank you very much for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 4:03 p.m. on August 23 at the Bush 
Ranch in Crawford, TX, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on August 25. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
August 24 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office 
of the

[[Page 1224]]

Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of this 
address.