[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 33 (Monday, August 19, 2002)]
[Pages 1346-1351]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Plenary Session of the President's Economic Forum in Waco

August 13, 2002

    Well, Dr. Sloan, thanks for having us all. And I want you to thank 
all the good folks here at Baylor University for putting on a great 
show. I know a lot of people worked hard. I'm really glad a lot of folks 
from around the country got to see Baylor. It's a fantastic university. 
And I want to thank the folks here who came from all around the country. 
Welcome to central Texas in the middle of August. [Laughter]
    People here are the people that really make America work: the 
entrepreneurs and

[[Page 1347]]

the visionaries, the carpenters, the union heads, the educators, 
grandmothers. We're here to listen to you, to get a report from what I 
call the frontlines of the American economy. And it's an important 
report. And the American people need to hear your report. My economic 
team and I heard much of the discussion. We will read the summaries. 
We'll think about it, and we'll move forward to create jobs for 
Americans. I want to thank all those who led the panels. I want to thank 
our speakers for doing a fantastic job today.
    I am so very grateful for our fellow citizens who are deeply 
concerned about the direction of our country. On stage today we're 
joined by four people who I mentioned during the radio address over the 
weekend. I want to thank Xavier Teixido, who is the chairman of the 
board of the National Restaurant Association. Xavier is an entrepreneur 
who obviously runs a restaurant and is now head of a very important 
association. Maria Sobrino, who is the founder of Lulu's--I don't know 
if Maria is going to be serving us all after lunch, but I certainly hope 
so, because she does a great job. Robert London, the driver from UPS; 
Jimmie Morgan, material management at Boeing. These are four ordinary 
Americans, as Phyllis called them, who have got opinions. And we heard 
their opinions, and they're important opinions.
    And so I want to thank the Vice President and members of my 
administration for coming down here to listen, to listen to what 
Americans have to say.
    There's no question our economy has been challenged by a recession 
that was beginning when we took office, that the terrorist attacks of 
September the 11th that Phyllis talked about had a lot to do with our 
economy and the state of affairs from today, and recently we have had to 
deal with corporate scandals that were long in the making; they finally 
have come to light--three factors that affected our economy. One of the 
things that we heard today is that our economy has strengths that are 
greater than the challenges. I mean, after all, our workers and farmers 
are the most productive in the world; that our entrepreneurs are 
incredibly visionary; that inflation and interest rates are low; that 
today we saw a report that consumer spending is still robust. We've had 
three quarters of positive growth after three quarters of negative 
growth. No, the foundations of the American economy are strong. Yet, the 
only purpose of a strong foundation is to build on it. And that's what 
we're discussing today. And we're determined, this administration is 
determined, to build on the long-term security of the American people.
    Here's the way I put it: If somebody wants to work and can't find a 
job, we have a problem. And we need to do something about it here in 
America. We have heard from Americans who are concerned but not 
discouraged. We've seen problems. But we're confident in the long-term 
health of this economy. We share a sense of optimism about America, 
because we understand our country.
    Too many Americans have lost a large portion of their retirement 
funds, and they've lost a sense of security in the process. I know that. 
Too many Americans have lost jobs, especially in the high-tech world, in 
the manufacturing sector. Too many Americans run into economic and 
regulatory barriers when they try to create a business or expand their 
business. Too many construction projects have halted because they cannot 
get terrorism insurance. The goal must be to create an environment of 
sustained economic growth. We've got work to do. I know that. But we're 
going to do the work. It starts with listening to our fellow Americans 
to find good ideas and implement them.
    Here's one good idea to make sure we continue to grow our economy, 
and that is, Congress, for the long-term economic security of America, 
needs to restrain spending. Recession and the cost of war and the cost 
of homeland defense have increased our budget, increased our deficits. 
Yet, I am determined to fund the great priorities of our Government 
while exercising the spending restraint that will return America to the 
path of a balanced budget as soon as possible. More money spent in 
Washington means less money in the hands of American families and 
entrepreneurs, less money in the hands of risk-takers and job creators. 
A limited and focused Government is essential to a growing economy. And 
if the Congress won't show

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spending restraint, I intend to enforce spending restraint.
    And this work of enforcement on spending continues today. At the end 
of the session, the Congress passed an emergency spending bill to 
strengthen our military, protect the homeland, and to complete the 
commitment of $20 billion I made to the citizens of New York. But they 
also sent along more than $5 billion in extra spending I didn't ask for. 
Some of that 5 billion I have endorsed and will work to secure through 
amendments to the '03 budget, like AIDS prevention money and support for 
Israel and Palestine. But a lot of that money has nothing to do with the 
national emergency, and I'll give you one example: a new facility for 
storing the Government's collection of bugs and worms. I made my 
opposition clear. We were pretty plain-spoken about the supplemental. 
But those who wrote the bill designed it so I have to spend all 5 of the 
extra billion dollars or spend none of it. That's how they wrote the 
supplemental. Those are the rules they placed upon my administration. I 
understand their position, and today they're going to learn mine. We'll 
spend none of it.
    As I said, for truly pressing needs and priorities, such as AIDS 
prevention and resources for the Middle East, we'll send to Congress 
specific amendments to get these funds quickly. However, we're not going 
to spend $4 billion we don't need in order to unlock 1 billion we do. 
For the good of our economy, for the good of the people who pay taxes, 
my administration will spend what is truly needed and not a dollar more. 
Spending restraint is just one of the many responsibilities that we 
accept.
    In order to build on the long-term security for the American people, 
we must always think about growth and jobs. I want to get American 
construction workers back to work. And that's why we need to have a 
terrorism insurance policy. I want those who wear the hardhats, who are 
willing to take risks by suspending themselves above the land, by 
building commercial projects that are significant in size--I want them 
working.
    I want to thank Doug McCarron for being here. He wants them working 
too. We're working hand in hand to see to it that Congress finally gets 
the message that we need a terrorism insurance bill to get American 
hardhats back to work.
    People say, ``Does it matter?'' Of course it matters. There's over 
$8 billion of commercial construction that has been suspended last year. 
That means $8 billion worth of projects in which somebody is going to be 
able to work and put food on the table for their family.
    And we need an energy policy too. Listen, energy policy is not only 
good for economic security, it's good for national security. We can do a 
much better job of harnessing technologies to conserve more energy. We 
can do a better job of finding renewable sources of energy. But for the 
sake of our economic security and for the sake of our national security, 
we need to become less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil, and we 
need to put our people to work by good, solid energy projects here at 
home. Congress needs to get me an energy bill. They need to stop 
talking, and they need to start acting by getting a good, sound energy 
bill to my desk as soon as they get home.
    You've heard a lot about the tax relief plan we passed. Thank 
goodness we passed it when we did. We cut taxes in the middle of a 
recession because we believe by letting people keep more of their own 
money, it'll cause them to demand a good or a service. And when they 
demand a good or a service, somebody will produce a good or a service. 
And when somebody produces that good or service, somebody is more likely 
to find work. The tax relief was incredibly important, and it's going to 
be important as time goes on, because it's phased in.
    Now, there are some in Washington who want to stop the tax relief, 
which is like a tax increase, which would be an unmitigated disaster 
given the economic situation in which we find ourselves. But rather than 
me talking about, ``Let's stop the tax reductions,'' what Congress needs 
to do is to join us in the call to make these tax relief permanent--
[applause]--permanent so small business--[applause]. Make it permanent 
so we send a signal throughout society that people should be able to 
plan, send a signal that we understand job creation is the number one 
priority of economic policy out of Washington, DC.

[[Page 1349]]

    In order to make sure the economy grows, we must bring the promise 
of broadband technology to millions of Americans. My administration is 
promoting investment in broadband. We will continue to work to prevent 
new access taxes on broadband technology. If you want something to be 
used more, you don't tax it. And broadband technology is going to be 
incredibly important for us to stay on the cutting edge of innovation 
here in America. The Federal Communications Commission is focusing on 
policies to encourage high-speed Internet service for every home and 
every business in America. The private sector will deploy broadband, but 
government at all levels should remove hurdles that slow the pace of 
deployment.
    In order to build long-term security, we will enforce the rules and 
laws on the books. I say as plainly as I can to CEOs: If you break the 
law, we will hunt you down; we will arrest you; and we will prosecute 
you. We expect the highest of high standards when it comes to corporate 
America. I want the books open and transparent. The numbers need to be 
real. The good news for our economy and our society is, by far the vast 
majority of CEOs are good, honorable people. They care deeply about 
their shareholders and their employees. Now that both Republicans and 
Democrats have come together to pass a sound corporate responsibility 
bill, my administration will take the new law, and we will hold those to 
account who do not uphold the high standards Americans expect from those 
of us in positions of responsibility.
    I believe--I believe to build the long-term security of America, we 
need to encourage ownership. We want to have an environment and--where 
people feel comfortable about starting their own business. We want the 
Curtis McGuires of the world to flourish. Another way we can promote 
ownership is to encourage homeownership. One of the statistics that 
concerns me deeply and concerns those in my administration is this: Too 
many minorities do not own a home in America. Under 50 percent of 
African Americans and Hispanic Americans own a home. That's just too 
few, as far as I'm concerned. You see, owning a home is part of the 
American experience. And so I'm promoting policies that will encourage 
homeownership.
    And we've set this goal, by the way, that we want there to be 5.5 
million minority families owning a home over the next 10 years, which 
means Government ought to have a policy that helps people with a 
downpayment. People take a look at owning a home, and they realize the 
downpayment is a frightening thought. We ought to have a downpayment 
assistance program out of Washington, DC.
    We need to make sure we have education programs, so that people 
understand what it means to buy a home, so that they're educated in what 
it takes to own a home. We need to make sure that we have got money 
available for homeownership, minority homeownership. I want to thank 
Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines for being here. He is joined with many in 
the private sector to unlock millions of dollars, to make it available 
for the purchase of a home. Listen, when people own a home, they have a 
stake in the future of our society. If we're interested in economic 
security, we must promote home ownership for all Americans--and the same 
for promoting asset ownership for all Americans.
    One of the most heartening statistics is, more and more Americans 
are building their balance sheets through pension plans. They're owning 
stocks and bonds. They've got a future other than their income stream. 
And that's vital, and that's important. But to make sure that those who 
own their pensions are fully protected, we need law out of Congress. I 
proposed a law--the House passed it; the Senate needs to act--which says 
the following things: One, people should not be forced to hold a large 
portion of their accounts in a company's stock. If you're working for a 
company and you own that stock, you should be able to diversify after a 
3-year period of time. Secondly, you ought to get sound investment 
advice every quarter, not every year. Thirdly, as we pass a corporate 
responsibility bill, if the CEO is able to unload the stock, so should 
the employee. What's good for the boss is good for the people working 
for the boss. And we need to make sure that all investment advice is 
sound investment advice. And these workers who've got their money and 
their future tied up in these pension plans ought to get the best--

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best advice possible. These are good reforms, and Congress needs to act 
on these reforms in order to encourage what we call an ownership 
society.
    In order to make sure that we continue to grow our economy, we need 
to be aggressive when it comes to trade policy. Zoellick mentioned to 
me, he said they're all looking to me. They may be looking to me, 
Zoellick; I'm looking to you. [Laughter] You're the Trade 
Representative. You've now got the tools. Go out there and start 
negotiating free trade agreements around the world.
    We're back at the bargaining table as a result of getting the trade 
promotion authority vote out of the United States Congress. It is 
essential that we move aggressively, because trade means jobs. More 
trade means higher incomes for American workers. Listen, a confident 
nation is one which opens up markets. A nation which isn't confident is 
one that closes its markets and puts walls around. I'm confident. I'm 
confident in the American entrepreneurs. I'm confident in our high-tech 
industry. I'm confident in our farmers and ranchers. I'm confident that 
when we compete, we're the best in the world. And therefore, I want to 
trade. I want to open up those markets. I want to level those playing 
fields. Open trade is good for American workers and American families.
    I agree completely with the health care panel, ably led by Tommy, 
that health security is an important part of economic security. There's 
a lot we need to do in Washington, but it starts with trusting the 
American people to make the right decisions. That's where it starts. 
There is a fundamental debate in Washington, DC. It goes like this: Do 
you trust--who do you trust? Do you trust the American people? Do you 
trust the elderly to make the right decisions for Medicare? Or do you 
want the Government making those decisions?
    I know that sounds like a simple formula, but it's true. It's true. 
The debate is, is that there are some in Washington who believe that the 
Federal Government should make all the decisions on behalf of the 
American people when it comes to their health care. We don't. We believe 
the Government can write a check, but we believe that the ultimate 
decisionmaker is the people of--is the person we're trying to help. 
That's the ultimate decisionmaker. We want our seniors to have more 
choices. Medicare is a vital program, but it's old, and it's stale, and 
it's tired. Medicine has changed; Medicare hasn't. We need to modernize 
Medicare by giving our seniors more viable choices when it comes to 
meeting their own specific health care needs.
    Health care must be affordable, and it must be accessible. And one 
way to make it more affordable and more accessible is to have a medical 
liability reform at the Federal Government. Too many lawsuits are 
driving our doctors out of practice and are driving up the cost for too 
many of our citizens. We have got a serious problem in America when it 
comes to frivolous lawsuits, and we need to deal with it. And I hope the 
Members of the Congress are listening carefully when they get--when 
they're back in their districts. They need to be talking to the people 
whose lives are being affected by these junk lawsuits. And for the sake 
of good medicine and good health care, we need medical liability reform 
out of Washington, DC, as soon as possible.
    And finally, I appreciate so very much the panel's discussion about 
making sure every child in America gets educated. There is no question 
we need to set high standards here in America. If we have low standards, 
guess what's going to happen. We will continue to get bad results. If we 
believe certain children can't learn, the system will just shuffle them 
through. The system will quit on them, and we've got to stop that in 
America. The best way to make sure that we enforce high standards is to 
say that if you receive Federal dollars, you, the State, must measure. 
You must show us whether or not every child is learning to read and 
write and add and subtract. Prove it, and if not, you've got to change 
the system. We cannot have children stuck in schools that won't teach 
and won't change. For the good of our economic security and for good of 
our children, we must be willing to challenge the status quo when the 
children can't read and write and add and subtract. And the only way to 
determine if that's the case is to have strong accountability. And I

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can assure you, Janet, so long as this administration is in power, we 
will insist upon accountability, no matter how long, how loud the cries 
of those who believe the status quo works. This administration believes 
every child can learn. This administration wants every child to learn. 
And you mark my words, by having high standards and holding people to 
account, our children are going to learn. And America is going to be a 
much better place for it.
    We heard a lot of things Government can do, and this administration 
is willing to work with Congress to do them: restrain spending, pass 
terrorism insurance, protect the pensions and promote trade, punish 
those who lie, cheat, or steal. But there are also things that people in 
America can do, people right here in this room must do. It's time for 
corporate America to earn back our trust. And that starts with having 
CEOs lead the way by having open balance sheets, fair numbers, by 
authorizing the numbers that are--tomorrow, starting tomorrow--by 
proving what I know, that by far the vast majority of those leading 
corporate America are good, honorable people. But I'm calling upon you 
to help earn back that culture that says, ``We trust what we read. We 
trust the advice we're getting.''
    You need to know that I'm incredibly optimistic about America. Oh, I 
know the hurdles--Phyllis talked about hurdles we face. And we do have 
hurdles. We've got a war to fight, but it's a war we're going to win. 
We've got a homeland to protect, and we're doing everything we can to 
protect the homeland. And we've got the economic security of our fellow 
Americans to worry about.
    But I'm confident in America. I'm confident in the skill of our 
people. I'm confident in our spirit. I know--I know that we're the 
greatest nation on the face of the Earth, because we're a land full of 
people that are caring and decent, hard-working and compassionate. Oh, 
there may be some tough times here in America. But this country has gone 
through tough times before, and we're going to do it again. And we're 
going to show the world how to be a prosperous and compassionate and 
decent country.
    Thank you all for coming. God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:05 p.m. in Jones Concert Hall at Baylor 
University. In his remarks, he referred to Robert Sloan, president, 
Baylor University; Maria de Lourdes Sobrino, founder and owner, Lulu's 
Desserts; Phyllis Hill Slater, president, Hill Slater, Inc.; Douglas J. 
McCarron, general president, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and 
Joiners of America; Curtis McGuire, owner and chief executive officer, 
RedLeg's Lumper Service, Inc.; Franklin D. Raines, chairman and chief 
executive officer, Fannie Mae; Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy 
G. Thompson; and Janet Baker, superintendent, Hamilton City Schools, 
Hamilton, OH. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of these remarks.